Meanings
plural initialisms
- human sciencesA 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.
Synonyms: alphabetism
- human sciencesThe 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
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name and pronounced as one word
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- 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
- Latinineō
- Latininitium
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Latininitiāli
- Middle Frenchinitia
- Latininitiāli
- Englishinitial
- Englishinitialism
Translations
Catalan sigla
- siglaterm pronounced letter by letter
Chinese Mandarin 首字母縮略詞 /首字母缩略词
- 首字母縮略詞 /首字母缩略词 (shǒuzìmǔ suōlüècí)term pronounced letter by letter
Danish initialord, initialforkortelse
- initialordterm pronounced letter by letter
- initialforkortelseterm pronounced letter by letter
Dutch initiaalwoord
- initiaalwoordterm pronounced letter by letter
Finnish kirjainlyhenne, initialismi
- kirjainlyhenneterm pronounced letter by letter
- initialismiterm pronounced letter by letter
French sigle, siglaison
- sigleterm pronounced letter by letter
- siglaisonforming words using initial letters
German Initialwort, Akronym
- Initialwortterm pronounced letter by letter
- Akronymterm pronounced letter by letter
- Buchstabenwortterm pronounced letter by letter
Greek αρκτικόλεξο
- αρκτικόλεξο (arktikólexo)term pronounced letter by letter
Hungarian betűszó
- betűszóterm pronounced letter by letter
Italian sigla, abbreviatura
- siglaterm pronounced letter by letter
- abbreviaturaterm pronounced letter by letter
- acronimoterm pronounced letter by letter
Norwegian Bokmål initialord
- initialordterm pronounced letter by letter
Polish literowiec, skrótowiec literowy
- literowiecterm pronounced letter by letter
- skrótowiec literowyterm pronounced letter by letter
Portuguese sigla, siglação
- siglaterm pronounced letter by letter
- siglaçãoforming words using initial letters
Russian инициа́льная аббревиату́ра
- инициа́льная аббревиату́ра (iniciálʹnaja abbreviatúra)term pronounced letter by letter
Spanish sigla
- siglaterm pronounced letter by letter
Cite this entry
initialism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/initialism
“initialism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/initialism. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “initialism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/initialism.
Source: initialism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.