Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[bakum123]

what's the difference betweem "initial" and "acronym"?

[Anuradha Chepur]

Initials are the first letter of words, and read out/spoken as letters and not ponounced as a word. For instance, the CIA (America's intelligence as you know) is uttered as the letters C-I-A.


Acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of words. For instance, India's intelligence (Research & Analysis Wing) is uttered as a word 'RAW'.