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jgedmond wrote: There's nothing magic about acronyms. The general rule is to use the article just as you would in any other situation considering the initial letter of the acronym as it is commonly spoken, therefore, a "LASER", but an "FFL".

Acronyms should be used as if you were writing or speaking the phrase for which it is substituted. Using your example, you would not say "a Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". Laser has been redefined to substitute for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation device". That's the kind of trap you get into when using acronyms, especially the compound ones.

So, it's best, when writing or speaking, to know you're only trying to save time and effort, and to use the acronym as you would the phrase itself. I suspect the Internet has made people try to take acronyms to another level, just as trying to establish changed spellings of such words as "though" ("tho"). Doesn't cut it for formal (read: "doesn't require interpretation") communication.

By definition, an acronym IS a word. Unless you use it as a word, it is not an acronym. Unless you say LEO (like mentioned before, "Leo the Lion.") it is not an acronym. LASER, RADAR, WAC, OPEC, LORAN, etc. are acronyms, as they are used as words. UCLA, USC TAMU, OU, FFL, IANAL, IMHO, etc. are not acronyms, they are abbreviations.

G26ster wrote:By definition, an acronym IS a word. Unless you use it as a word, it is not an acronym. Unless you say LEO (like mentioned before, "Leo the Lion.") it is not an acronym. LASER, RADAR, WAC, OPEC, LORAN, etc. are acronyms, as they are used as words. UCLA, USC TAMU, OU, FFL, IANAL, IMHO, etc. are not acronyms, they are abbreviations.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that definition. An acronym is truly an abbreviation, since it is specifically generated through a (strategic) compilation of the first or significant letters of words in a phrase. Thus, it is not a word! I just showed this with "LASER", which is a word born from a phrase, but requires other words to be meaningful, unless a new word is generated from it ("laser") which gives it meaning. GN&C, LIDAR, MMU, etc., are acronyms, not words.

OldSchool wrote:

G26ster wrote:By definition, an acronym IS a word. Unless you use it as a word, it is not an acronym. Unless you say LEO (like mentioned before, "Leo the Lion.") it is not an acronym. LASER, RADAR, WAC, OPEC, LORAN, etc. are acronyms, as they are used as words. UCLA, USC TAMU, OU, FFL, IANAL, IMHO, etc. are not acronyms, they are abbreviations.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that definition. An acronym is truly an abbreviation, since it is specifically generated through a (strategic) compilation of the first or significant letters of words in a phrase. Thus, it is not a word! I just showed this with "LASER", which is a word born from a phrase, but requires other words to be meaningful, unless a new word is generated from it ("laser") which gives it meaning. GN&C, LIDAR, MMU, etc., are acronyms, not words.

You'll have to tell the folks at Dictionary.com they are wrong.

ac·ro·nym
   /ˈækrənɪm/ Show Spelled[ak-ruh-nim] Show IPA
–noun
1.
a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words, as Wac from Women's Army Corps, OPEC from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or loran from long-range navigation.

—Can be confused: abbreviation, acronym.

I can do that too:

^ Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, 1994. ISBN 0-877-79132-5. pp. 21–2:

acronyms A number of commentators (as Copperud 1970, Janis 1984, Howard 1984) believe that acronyms can be differentiated from other abbreviations in being pronounceable as words. Dictionaries, however, do not make this distinction because writers in general do not.

Just being pronounced as a word does not make it a word.

If we're down to dueling Internet sources, I think we're done!

Either way; A or AN, took me a while to figure out what LEO was no matter what was in front of it. I am not keen on abbreviations and half the ones written on this forum I have no clue as to what people are talking about. Need a sticky giving defs of all abbrev's.

"A" before words that start with a constant. "An" before words that start with a vowel.

"A Law..."

"A LEO" (pronounced as Leo the lion)

However, if your pronouncing it "EL" "E" "O", then it would be "An EL-E-O". But who does?

TLE2 wrote:
However, if your pronouncing it "EL" "E" "O", then it would be "An EL-E-O". But who does?

I do.

A ELO or an ELO?

an Electric Light Orchestra?