Difference between Acronyms and Abbreviations like UN,SA and UFO?

Question

Read the question ^^^^^^

Answer 1

Accronyms are mostly the initials of names of organiztaions, like the UNICEF pr the United Nations International Community Emerency Fund (or is that correct?) etc. including your examples, which by reading it alone will give u an idea of what that accronym is. While an abbreviation is the shortcut of a word, or words, e.g., Univ. of Cal. or University of California, Ger. for germany, Cav. for cavaliers, etc/. both these types are used to shorten the words, which are anyway understood by most.

Answer 2

An acronym is where the letters of the name are pronounced as a word e.g Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is SIDS, and National Aeronautic Space Agency is NASA. Some abbreviations are pronounced as their individual letters as in the ones you said - UN, UFO, USA, etc.

Answer 3

While acronyms *are* abbreviations, the result of taking the first letter of each word results in something at least *recognizable* as a word and stated as a word, like (the always used example) NATO.

The examples you gave don't qualify unless you tend to say "un", "sa", and "oofo" (phonetically) as words.

Answer 4

An acronym is another name for the same thing. An abbreviation is a shortened form of the word. I suppose one could be the other.

Answer 5

To get an acronym you use a letter from each oh the words in the term...United Nations - UN, unidentified flying object - UFO. An abbreviation is just a shortened version of a single word (usually)...teaspoon - tsp, tablespoon - Tbs, etc... et cetera.

Answer 6

Acronyms are formed from the first letter of the words making up the name: United States of America = USA, MIA = Missing in action. Abbreviations shorten, or abbreviate words, such as Tues. for Tuesday or Jan. for January.

Answer 7

Acronyms ARE abbreviations, they just use the first letter of each word in the phrase. (USA - United States of America)

Abbreviations are 'shortened' words (Abbr. - Abbreviation)