initialism

Definition

A term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter.

Etymology

From initial + -ism.

Example Sentences

• "The term BBC is an initialism for the British Broadcasting Corporation."
• "The next most frequent source language was English, with neologistic compounds accounting for 15 etymologies, with 9 other English-based terms from a variety of word formation processes such as initialism and semantic extension."

Related Words