Talk:List of acronyms/Archive 2

This is an intermediate list for checking purposes only. This is derived from the list of acronyms with only the initial " - " replaced with " - (a) ".

This list was then merged with the intermediate list of initialisms to create the new list of acronyms and initialisms.

On a personal note I couldn't help noticing there are several entries here that really need cleaning, deleting, moving. But I will leave that to others!

This is a list of acronyms that are pronounceable words. This list does not include initialisms, acronyms whose pronunciation is wholly or partly the names of constituent letters. (see list of initialisms)

Please add your own, in alphabetical order.


 * ACCAC - (a) Awdurdod Cymwysterau, Cwricwlwm ac Asesu Cymru (Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales)
 * ADS - (a) Astrophysics Data System, Attention Deficit Syndrome
 * AIDS - (a) Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
 * Algol - (a) Algorithmic language
 * ANA - (a) All Nippon Airways, anti-nuclear anti-body
 * ANSI - (a) American National Standards Institute
 * ANZAC - (a) Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
 * ASAP - (a) as soon as possible
 * ASCII - (a) American Standard Code for Information Interchange
 * ASCAP - (a) American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
 * ASFAR - (a) Americans for a Society Free of Age Restrictions
 * AWACS - (a) Airborne Warning and Control System
 * AWOL - (a) Absent Without Official Leave (military jargon)


 * BAR - (a) Buy American Restrictions
 * BART - (a) Bay Area Rapid Transit
 * BASE - (a) as in BASE jumping - Building, Antenna, Span, Earthform (or Earth)
 * BASIC - (a) Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, acronym was added later, originally it was simply Basic
 * BIOS - (a) basic input/output system
 * BOAT - (a) Byway Open to All Traffic (pronounced as 2 syllables, Bo-At)
 * BOHICA - (a) Bend Over Here It Comes Again
 * BODMAS - (a) Brackets, Of, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction
 * BWARS - (a) Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society


 * CAD - (a) Computer Aided Design
 * CALABARZON - (a) a region in the Philippines: Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon (not an acronym in the strictest sense)
 * CBE - (a) Commander of the Order of the British Empire
 * CENTO - (a) Central Treaty Organization (Baghdad Pact)
 * CERN - (a) Centre Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire
 * CBC - (a) Cipher Block Chaining* COBOL - Common Business-Oriented Language
 * COD - (a) Cash On Delivery
 * COLA - (a) cost of living adjustment - comp.os.linux.announce
 * CREEP - (a) Committee to Re-elect the President
 * DBE - (a) Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
 * DIMM - (a) Dual In-line Memory Module (computing)
 * DINK - (a) Double income, no kids
 * DIP - (a) dual in-line package (electronics)
 * DOI - (a) Digital Object Identifier
 * DOS - (a) Density of State / Disk Operating System / Denial of Service


 * EPCOT - (a) Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow


 * FARC - (a) Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)
 * FEMA - (a) Federal Emergency Management Agency
 * FIFA - (a) Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Association Football Federation)
 * FIDE - (a) The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (World Chess Foundation)
 * FIFO - (a) First In First Out
 * Fortran - (a) Formula Translator
 * FUBAR - (a) Fucked (or Fouled) Up Beyond All Recognition
 * FUD - (a) Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt (marketing strategy)
 * FSC - (a) Forest Stewardship Council (an ecological pressure group)


 * GBE - (a) Knight/Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
 * Gestapo - (a) GEheime STAtsPOlizei ("secret state police")
 * GIGO - (a) Garbage In Garbage Out
 * GIMP - (a) GNU Image Manipulation Program
 * GLAAD - (a) Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
 * GNOME - (a) GNU Network Object Model Environment
 * GNU - (a) GNU's Not Unix
 * GOMER - (a) Get Out of My Emergency Room (derogatory reference to hypochondriac patients)
 * grep - (a) (search) globally for regular expression, print (lines)
 * GUI - (a) Graphical User Interface (pronounced goo-ey)
 * Gulag - (a) Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh LAGerei


 * HALO - (a) High Altitude Low Opening (type of a parachute jump)


 * IATA - (a) International Air Transport Association
 * ISCII - (a) Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange
 * Interpol - (a/p) International Criminal Police Organization
 * IUPAC - (a) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (pronounced Yoo-Pac)


 * JAG - (a) Judge Advocate General (US military lawyers)
 * JAL - (a) Japan Airlines
 * JATO - (a) Jet Assisted Takeoff Unit
 * Jeb Bush - (a) John Ellis Bush
 * Jeb Stuart - (a) James Ewell Brown (Stuart's given names)
 * JPEG - (a) Joint Photographic Experts Group
 * KBE - (a) Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire


 * KARNAC - (a) Knowledge Aided Retrieval in Activity Context
 * KISS - (a) Keep it simple stupid


 * LAN - (a) Local Area Network
 * Laser - (a) Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
 * LIFO - (a) Last in, first out
 * LUCA - (a) Last Universal Common Ancestor


 * MAD - (a) magnetic anomaly detector - mutual assured destruction
 * MADD - (a) Mothers Against Drunk Driving - Myoadenylate deaminase deficiency
 * Maser - (a) Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
 * MASH - (a) mobile army surgical hospital
 * MBE - (a) Member of the Order of the British Empire
 * MILF - (a) Mother I'd Like To Fuck, Moro Islamic Liberation Front
 * MIMAROPA - (a) a region in the Philippines: Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan
 * MIP - (a) Multiple Identity Poster
 * MOAB - (a) mother of all bombs
 * MOPE - (a) Most Oppressed People Ever (politics)
 * MPEG - (a) Motion Pictures (Coding) Experts Group


 * NAAFI - (a) Navy, Army and Air Force Institute (British)
 * NAMBLA - (a) North American Man-Boy Love Association - National Associaton of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes
 * NARAL - (a) National Abortion Rights Action League
 * NASA - (a) National Aeronautics and Space Administration
 * NASCAR - (a) National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing
 * Nasdaq - (a) National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations
 * NATO - (a) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
 * NIMBY - (a) Not In My Back Yard
 * NOAA - (a) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
 * NORAD - (a) North American Aerospace Defense Command
 * NORML - (a) National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
 * NOTAFLOF - (a) No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds
 * NOW - (a) National Organization for Women
 * NUCC(C) - (a) Nordic University Computer Club (Conference)
 * NUTS - (a) Nuclear Utilization Target Selection
 * NYRA - (a) National Youth Rights Association; also New York Racing Association (horse racing)


 * OBE - (a) Office of the Order of the British Empire
 * OPAC - (a) Online Public Access Catalogue
 * OPEC - (a) Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries


 * Pakistan - (a) Punjab, Afghan States, Kashmir, Sindh, Baluchistan
 * PAL - (a) Phase Alternating Line (TV standard)
 * PAL - (a) Philippine Airlines
 * PARC - (a) Palo Alto Research Center
 * PARWIG - (a) Power Augmented Ram Wing in Ground (aeroplane wing shape)
 * PETA - (a) pentaerythritol triacrylate - People Eating Tasty Animals - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
 * PITA - (a) Pain In The Ass
 * POG - (a) Passionfruit, Orange and Guava
 * POTS - (a) Plain Old Telephone Service, also PANS - Pretty Advanced (or Awsome) Network Services - Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome


 * Qantas - (a) Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
 * QDOS - (a) Quick and Dirty Operating System
 * Quango - (a) (British Commonwealth) QUasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation
 * Quasar - (a) Quasi-stellar radio source


 * Radar - (a) Radio detection and ranging
 * RAM - (a) Random Access Memory, Royal Air Maroc
 * REACT - (a) Remote Electronically Activated Control Technology
 * ROM - (a) Read Only Memory


 * SALT - (a) Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
 * SAM - (a) sequential-access memory - surface-to-air missile - Sociedad Aeron&aacute;utica de Medell&iacute;n
 * SAVAK - (a) Sazamane Etelaat va Amniate Kechvar (Iranian Security and Intelligence Service)
 * SARS - (a) Severe acute respiratory syndrome
 * SCRAM - (a) safety control rod axe man
 * SCSI (technically pronounced "scuzzy") - (a) small computer system interface
 * Scuba - (a) Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
 * SEATO - (a) Southeast Asian Treaty Organization
 * SECAM - (a) Systeme Electronique Couleur Avec Memoire (TV standard)
 * SETI - (a) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
 * SIMM - (a) single in-line memory module
 * SIMPLE - (a) Satellite Interactive Multimedia Platform for Low-cost Earth Stations
 * SLORC - (a) The State Law and Order Restoration Council (of Burma)
 * SNAFU - (a) Situation Normal&mdash;All Fucked (or Fouled) Up
 * SNOBOL - (a) StriNg Oriented symBOlic Language
 * SOCCSKSARGEN - (a) a region in the Philippines: South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, General Santos City (pronounced sock-sar-gen)
 * Sonar - (a) Sound navigation and ranging
 * Stuka - (a) Sturzkampfflugzeug (Diving Warplane)
 * SWAT - (a) Special Weapons And Tactics
 * SWOT - (a) Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats


 * TANJ - (a) There Ain't No Justice
 * TANSTAAFL - (a) There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (from Robert A. Heinlein)
 * TEAL - (a) Tasman Empire Airways Limited
 * TEETH - (a) Tried Everything Else, Try Homoeopathy (medical diagnosis in-joke)
 * TOS - (a) Terms of Service; Tape Operating System
 * TUG - (a) TeX Users Group


 * UNESCO - (a) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization


 * UNICEF - (a) United Nations Children's Fund, originally United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
 * UNIDO - (a) United Nations Industrial Development Organization
 * UNIFEM - (a) United Nations Fund for Women
 * UNPROFOR - (a) United Nations Protection Force
 * URL - (a) Uniform Resource Locator (when pronounced as earl)


 * WAN - (a) Wide Area Network
 * WASP - (a) white anglo-saxon protestant
 * WHO - (a) World Health Organisation
 * WYSIWYG - (a) What You See Is What You Get


 * XrML - (a) eXtensible Rights Markup Language


 * Yippie - (a) Youth International Party + suffix
 * Yuppie - (a) Young Urban Professional + suffix


 * ZIP code - (a) Zoning Improvement Plan

Words that may not be acronyms, but folk etymology says that they are:


 * Fuck - (a) Fornication under consent of the king or for unlawful carnal knowledge
 * Golf - (a) Gentlemen only, ladies forbidden
 * News - (a) North, east, west and south (a mnemonic)
 * Posh - (a) Port out, starboard home
 * Rap - (a) Rhythm and poetry (AFAIK: Rhythmical African Poetry)
 * Tips - (a) To insure prompt service
 * Pom - (a) (Australian English) Prisoner of His Majesty

See also: backronym, list of initialisms, list of US Army acronyms, List of government and military acronyms