We’ve been a little self-indulgent and playful during the holiday season, but readers are calling us back to business. Here’s one: For many years I have had anxiety about the plurals of acronyms and ...

ICYMI (in case you missed it), acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms are ways to shorten phrases and ideas both in normal speech and through texting and email. But a common FAQ (frequently asked ...

The initialism ‘FB’ used on social media has been declared the most confusing of all time, with 364,274 monthly searches in the UK. Overall, the five most confusing social media slang terms are FB ...

The new wave band Tom Tom Club once sang “what are words worth?”. In the song, emphasis is upon the subjective nature of language and its ability to convey meaning, emotions, and experiences. In the ...

Initially, I didn't think I could say a lot about acronyms. I was wrong. An acronym uses the first letters of a few words to form a new word. The purpose is to shorten a long string of words to one ...

Q: What exactly is an initialism? Is that like an acronym? A recent Hotline column used an “initialism,” but I’ve never heard of that before. A: The difference between an “initialism” and an “acronym” ...

Acronyms are stronger. Abbreviations are wimpy abbreviated versions of the real thing. Acronyms can take on lives of their own. Consider AARP. It used to mean “American Association of Retired Persons.

Returning to the United States seven years ago, I was puzzled how the Bureau of Land Management had seemingly become involved with race politics. Then I deciphered that the hashtag #BLM had taken on a ...

Initially, I didn't think I could say a lot about acronyms. I was wrong. An acronym uses the first letters of a few words to form a new word. The purpose is to shorten a long string of words to one ...