How to use the acronym maker
- Type or paste your phrases, one per line. Several lines give several acronyms at once.
- Adjust the options: the small words to leave out, capital letters, a dot after each letter, whether hyphens split words, and whether a number counts as a letter.
- Read the acronyms in the result box, one per line in the same order, and in the table with the number of letters.
- Use Copy acronyms or Download file to keep the list, or Use result as input to work on it further.
How the letters are chosen
The tool splits each line into words and takes the first letter of every word that is not on your skip list. Punctuation around a word, such as quotes or brackets, is ignored, so (Not) Invented Here gives NIH. A word that starts with a number gives that digit when the number option is on, so 3 Dimensional Printing becomes 3DP.
Portable Document Format gives PDF, Bring Your Own Device gives BYOD, and Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound gives SMARTB when hyphens split words. Turn that option off and the hyphenated Time-bound counts as one word, which gives SMART.
Small words and the first word
Many acronyms leave out words like of, and and the, so United States of America becomes USA and not USOA. The list in the first option is editable and applies to every line. Empty it to keep every word, which turns Department of Defense into DOD instead of DD.
If a phrase starts with a skipped word and you want that letter anyway, tick the option to keep the first word. The tool treats the first word of each line separately.
Acronyms, initialisms and checking use
An acronym is read as a word, like NASA, and an initialism is said letter by letter, like FBI. The tool builds either from first letters and cannot tell which one people will say. It also cannot tell whether the result is already used for something else, so search before you commit to a name. Related text tools include the word counter, the case converter and the longest word finder.
Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. The tool handles up to 200 lines and 20,000 characters at once.
Assumptions and limits
- Letters are taken from the first character of each word, including accented letters such as the E in the French word école.
- The skip list is matched in lower case against the whole word, so "of" is skipped but "office" is not.
- Up to 200 lines and 20,000 characters are processed, and blank lines stay blank in the output.
- Nothing is uploaded or stored.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make an acronym from a phrase?
Take the first letter of each important word and join them in order. Paste the phrase above and the tool does that and drops small words such as of and the, which you can edit.
What is the difference between an acronym and an initialism?
An acronym is pronounced as a word, like NASA, and an initialism is spoken letter by letter, like FBI. Both are built from first letters, which is what this tool produces.
Why did the tool leave out a word?
The word is on the small words list. Edit the list or clear it to keep every word, or tick the option to keep a skipped first word.
Can I make acronyms for a whole list?
Yes. Put one phrase on each line and the result shows one acronym per line in the same order, up to 200 lines at a time.