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a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words and pronounced as a separate word, as Wac from Women’s Army Corps, OPEC from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or loran from long-range navigation.
a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately; an .
an .
to make an acronym of:
The committee’s name has been acronymed MIKE.
Contemporary Examples

For most middle-aged big-shots, the acronym LDL is a measure of cholesterol.
Confide Is the Best Way to Keep Your Dastardly Deeds Hidden—For Now Daniel Gross January 16, 2014

The acronym of the embodying League of the Common Fate is SOS.
This 1979 Novel Predicted Putin’s Invasion Of Crimea Michael Weiss May 17, 2014

Oh, SYAP,” says another student laconically, using the acronym for “See You at the Pole.
See You at the Pole: Church Youth Gatherings Raise Legal Questions Katherine Stewart January 25, 2012

The acronym TOW stands for Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire command link-guided missile.
The Big Weapons that the U.S. May Be Secretly Supplying to the Syrian Rebels Thomas Gibbons-Neff April 24, 2014

Bae,” for example, is a term of endearment that is either short for “baby” or an acronym for “before anyone else.
Feminist, Bae, Turnt: Time’s ‘Worst Words’ List Is Sexist and Racist Samantha Allen November 12, 2014

And then the next red-hot development on some other front will emerge rendering the acronym to oblivion.
Why I’m Not Worried About Dying From a Superbug, and You Shouldn’t Be, Either Kent Sepkowitz March 7, 2013

Note: In acronym form, it becomes clear that RuPaul hopes to C. U. next Tuesday.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Dictionary Jaimie Etkin April 23, 2011

He used the Arab acronym for ISIS or ISIL, as the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” commonly is known.
Arab Kings vs. ISIS Barbarians Christopher Dickey September 22, 2014

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known by the acronym AQAP at the CIA, is about to release its first English-language magazine.
A New Magazine for Terrorists Lloyd Grove June 29, 2010

OMB—An acronym for the excitable expression, “Oh my Bieber!”
Meet the Beliebers: Justin Bieber’s Insane Twitter Fans Brian Ries September 9, 2010

noun
a pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words; for example, UNESCO for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
n.

word formed from the first letters of a series of words, 1943, American English coinage from acro- + -onym “name” (abstracted from homonym; see name (n.)). But for cabalistic esoterica and acrostic poetry, the practice was practically non-existent before 20c.
acronym [(ak-ruh-nim)]

A word formed by combining the beginning letters of a name or phrase, as in WASP for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or by combining the initial syllables of a series of words, as in radar, which stands for radio detecting and ranging.

Note: Acronyms are often less clumsy than the complete expressions they represent and are easier to write and remember.

jargon
An identifier formed from some of the letters (often the initials) of a phrase and used as an abbreviation. This dictionary contains a great many acronyms; see the contents page for a list.
See also TLA.
(1995-03-15)