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The Grammatical Term:  “Acronym” is the name for a Grammatical Unit which is a specific form of the Grammatical Unit:  Abbreviation.
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(The Acronym:  “ASAP” — is an Abbreviated Form of the Phrase:  “As Soon As Possible”)

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As Abbreviations are a shortened or contracted forms of Words or Phrases — Acronyms are specifically:  Abbreviated forms of phrases or names (usually the names or organizations).
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This particular type of Abbreviation is made by combining the first letters of the words in the Name, Term, Or Phrase in-order-to create a new Word (such as “NASA”) — or simply just a Letter-Combination (such as “FBI”).  “NASA” — represents the name of the organization called:  The “National Aeronautics & Space Administration”.  Because it has vowels, it is spoken as a name.
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With the Acronym: “FBI” (which represents:  The “Federal Bureau Of Investigation”) — since it is not possible to be pronounced as a word — it is spoken by simply saying the name of the letters in the Acronym

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The most commonly-used Acronyms used in recent times, are those that are what is often referred-to as “Text Speech”.  Such as:  LOL, LMAO, WTF, STFU, etc..
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• LOL:  “Laughing Out Loud”
• LMAO:  “Laughing My Ass Off”
• WTF:  “What The F^ck”
• STFU:  “Shut The F^ck Up!”

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See Also:

• • Abbreviation — (GiveMeSomeEnglish!!! Blog)
  • Acronym & Acronyms — (Pronunciation Portal)

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