initialism
/ɪˈnɪʃəlɪzəm/noun
initialism is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-L-I-S-M: 10 letters. It appears about once in every 18 million words in written English, the 128,787th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, initialism means “A term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of initialism is initialisms.
How many letters and syllables are in initialism?
| Letters | 10: I-N-I-T-I-A-L-I-S-M |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 18 million words; the 128,787th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is initialism?
Initialism appears about once in every 18 million words in written English, the 128,787th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce initialism?
- /ɪˈnɪʃəlɪzəm/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-initialism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of initialism
- initialisms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does initialism mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter.
The term BBC is an initialism for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
- 2
The process of forming words or terms using initial letters of other words.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Initialism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sigle , siglaison |
| German | Initialwort, Akronym, Buchstabenwort |
| Portuguese | sigla , siglação |
| Spanish | sigla |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.