bvpraveen  +  96073 Wed, 04 May 05 01:25 PM Friends, Can you tell me the difference between Abbrevation and Acronym? I hardly find any difference. bvpraveen Joined on Sat, Mar 5 2005 Coimbatore, India Regular Member 507 Difference Between

	Clive  +  96082 Wed, 04 May 05 01:49 PM Hi, An abbreviation is a short form where a word is represented by a part of it, eg dept. for department. An acronym is initials that we pronounce as a word. FBI is not an acronym. NATO is, because we say 'naytoh'. Best wishes, Clive Clive Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004 Canada Veteran Member 26,465 El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo Abbreviations

	bvpraveen  +  96386 Thu, 05 May 05 02:57 PM So, is FBI an abbrevation? Are they correct? 1) Acronyms - AIDS, etc 2) Abbrevatios - CBI, WHO, etc Can you give me some more examples for both, so that I can understand them better. Thanks. bvpraveen

	pieanne  +  96448 Thu, 05 May 05 05:30 PM Yet you can find FBI in the acronym dictionary pieanne Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005 South of France ...But I'm Belgian! Veteran Member 7,517 I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

	Clive  +  96504 Thu, 05 May 05 10:41 PM Hi everyone, An acronym is defined as initials that we pronounce as a word, so I don't know why FBI would be in an acronym dictionary. An abbreviation is a shortened word. Federal for example, could be shortened to Fed. or even to just F, so abbreviations can certainly just consist of initials. Examples of abbreviations: MP, USA, RCMP, CIA, the UN, USSR, BBC, BA, IQ Examples of acronyms: NATO, UNESCO, AIDS, Sometimes the acronym eventually becomes an accepted word eg laser, radar Some items can be both, depending on how you pronounce it: eg UFO - we can say 'U F O' or 'YUFOH'. I hope this helps, Clive Clive Abbreviations

	pieanne  +  97750 Mon, 09 May 05 06:48 PM That's quite clear! Maybe the dictionary regroups any abreviation that are used... Thanks, Clive pieanne

	Forbes  +  172738 Wed, 21 Dec 05 12:37 PM USA is not an acronym as it is not pronounced "user" but each letter is spelled out "U-S-A". Laser is an acronym as it is pronounced as a word. All acronyms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are acronyms. Forbes Joined on Thu, Jun 16 2005 Regular Member 884 Abbreviations