Abbreviation

Updated: 11/13/2018 by Computer Hope

Abbreviation may refer to any of the following:

Dec abbreviation for December.

1. An abbreviation or initialism is a shortened version of a word that is pronounced as individual letters. For example,"HTML" is an abbreviation for "hypertext markup language" and is pronounced H-T-M-L and not sounded out as a word.

Note

Grammatically incorrect abbreviations are considered chat slang, e.g., using "u" as an abbreviation for "you." Other shortened words like "LOL" and "OMG" are considered shorthand.

Abbreviation vs. an acronym

Both acronyms and abbreviations are shortened forms of another word, which makes it confusing when trying to make a distinction between the two. For example, "Dr." is an abbreviation of "Doctor" and both forms are pronounced the same way. An acronym is a shortened word created from the letters contained in multiple words or a phrase. For example, "RAM" is an acronym for "random access memory."

The biggest distinctions between an acronym and abbreviation is an acronym simplifies a long name or term and forms a new pronounceable word. An abbreviation is not pronounced as a word.

2. When writing in HTML, the <abbr> tag designates an acronym or abbreviation.

Acronym, Computer abbreviations, Short, TLA