An acronym is a word made of first letters. The five Great Lakes are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior: HOMES. The colors of the rainbow in order are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet: ROY G. BIV.
Key idea
Use an acronym when the first letters are enough to bring back each item. If order matters, keep the letters in order. If it doesn't, rearrange them into a real word.
Worked example: Worked example
Make an acronym for the five senses in any order: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell.
- First letters: S, H, T, T, S.
- Order doesn't matter, so look for a word or name.
- No neat word comes out, so a phrase may work better: "STTSH" is hard to say.
Answer: When no word appears, try an acrostic sentence instead (next topic).
Worked example: When order matters
Make an acronym for these in order: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
- First letters: K P C O F G S.
- No word, and order matters.
- An acrostic sentence is better here: King Philip Came Over For Good Soup.
Answer: KPCOFGS, best held with a sentence.
Common mistake
Learning the acronym but not the items. HOMES helps only if you know H is for Huron.