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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

initialism en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɪˈnɪʃəlɪzəm/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti Proto-Italic *ejō Proto-Italic *eō Proto-Italic *eneō Latin ineō Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -iusnom. Latin -ium Latin initium Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin initiālislbor. Middle French initialbor. ▲ Latin initiālislbor. English initial Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English initialism From initial + -ism.

Meanings

  1. A term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter.
    • The term BBC is an initialism for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
  2. The process of forming words or terms using initial letters of other words.
    • 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. 2015, James Lambert, “Lexicography as a teaching tool: A Hong Kong case study”, in Lan Li, Jamie McKeown, Liming Liu, editors, Dictionaries and corpora: Innovations in reference science. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015 Hong Kong, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, page 146:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
initialisms Number=Plur lexicographic

Coordinates

acronym[Appendix:Glossary

Deriveds

orphan initialism

Hypernyms

abbreviation[Appendix:Glossary · word · acronym[Appendix:Glossary

Relateds

abecedism · acronym · abbreviation · TLA

Synonyms

alphabetism

Translations (25)

de Akronym (term pronounced letter by letter) · de Buchstabenwort (term pronounced letter by letter) · cmn 首字母縮略詞 /首字母缩略词 (term pronounced letter by letter) · da initialforkortelse (term pronounced letter by letter) · nn initialord (term pronounced letter by letter) · fr siglaison (forming words using initial letters) · ru инициа́льная аббревиату́ра (term pronounced letter by letter) · fr sigle (term pronounced letter by letter) · ca sigla (term pronounced letter by letter) · pt siglação (forming words using initial letters) · es sigla (term pronounced letter by letter) · nl initiaalwoord (term pronounced letter by letter) · da initialord (term pronounced letter by letter) · fi kirjainlyhenne (term pronounced letter by letter) · pl literowiec (term pronounced letter by letter) · nb initialord (term pronounced letter by letter) · hu betűszó (term pronounced letter by letter) · it sigla (term pronounced letter by letter) · el αρκτικόλεξο (term pronounced letter by letter) · it acronimo (term pronounced letter by letter) · it abbreviatura (term pronounced letter by letter) · pt sigla (term pronounced letter by letter) · de Initialwort (term pronounced letter by letter) · pl skrótowiec literowy (term pronounced letter by letter) · fi initialismi (term pronounced letter by letter)