What is the difference between acronym and acrostic

The difference between acronym and acrostic is that, an acronym will not form a poem, sentence or puzzle whereas, an acrostic will form a poem, sentence, or puzzle. So, Phd, should be pronounced as P, alone, h, alone and d, alone.

However, on the other hand, Initial will always indicate the first letter of the word but an abbreviation need not follow this rule, Phd, has been taken from beginning, middle or from the end of the word or letter. So What?

Managing information is the one of the keys of influencing skills and mnemonics and acronyms are some of the tools to manage information, code them and store them in the human memory.

All our life we deal with two entities; manpower and matter. In order to manage these two entities, mnemonics yet another tool that can help. Back to Featured Articles on. See the original article. About the author Lifecoachbloggers View profile View Blog. Magazine Career. In all Magazines Search for user. Home Submit Your Blog Follow us. Username Password remember me Login Forgotten your password? Two very similar sounding words, acronyms and acrostics are easily confused with each other for the same reason.

Although both appear to be the same, the key difference between acronym and acrostic is in their definitions itself; acronym is a kind of abbreviation while acrostic is a form of writing. An acronym can be described as an abbreviation of a word that has been composed of the initial letters or components of a phrase or word. These components can be parts of words or individual letters. However, although an acronym is usually an abbreviation formed from the initial components of a phrase, in certain dictionaries, an acronym is often defined as a word in its original sense.

In certain cases, an acronym is often given the same definition of an initialism, an abbreviation used as a string of initials. There is no universal standardization for such abbreviations and although their usage had been limited in the past, they came into wide usage during the 20th century. This type of acrostic is simply called an acrostic.

Abecedarian: An acrostic that, instead of spelling a word, spells the alphabet. Chaucer's poem "La Priere de Nostre Dame" is an example of an abecedarian acrostic. A mnemonic is a technique for aiding memory. Mnemonic systems involve adding something more memorable to the information you are studying. We have already seen how rhymes can act as a mnemonic.

Other examples of mnemonics are acronyms and acrostics. An acronym is a word formed by abbreviating a phrase by combining certain letters of words in the phrase often the first initial of each into a single term. An abbreviation is a short form of a word or phrase.