In this modern world of information being generated, processed, validated; flying this way and that; not to mention adhering to character limits–abbreviations help us to condense important concepts for quick communication. Two popular, and often confused, methods for abbreviating an idea are acronyms and initialisms. Both use the initial letter of each word in a phrase, with the key difference being that acronyms form a word that can be spoken, while the letters are individually pronounced for initialisms (think NASA versus the NSA).

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