An acronym is a special kind of word that acts as an abbreviation for a phrase. In the strictest sense, acronyms are new words formed by combining the first letter of each word in a phrase. One example of this is scuba, short for “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.”
There are also backronyms, which are expressions that have been fitted into already existing words. The word “SAD” is a backronym for “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” Some other acronyms contain more than just the initial letters: Interpol, for example, stands for “International Criminal Police Organization.”
But some words claimed to be acronyms really aren’t. In fact, acronyms really only became popular in English after World War II. So if a word has a history that goes back prior to WWII, it’s likely that any phrase associated with it was an afterthought.
Can you tell which of the following words is a true acronym and which is a fake? See if you can detect the impostors!
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Question of
Captcha
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Bingo
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Adidas
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Laser
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Canola
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Posh
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Nabisco
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Golf
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Yes
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No
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Question of
FAQ
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Cop
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Tip (as a gratuity)
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Yes
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No
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Question of
EPCOT
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Yes
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No
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Question of
RSVP
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Yes
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No
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Question of
SOS
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Laser
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Yes
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No
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Question of
AIDS
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Coma
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Amphetamine
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Ford (the car manufacturer)
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Kiss (the rock band)
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Yes
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No
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I got 16 out of 20
Awesome! A lot of people had trouble with this one.
Hahaha I got 13 out of 20
Way to go!
I could’ve sworn SOS was an acronym… anyway, cool quiz
A lot of people think it is, but it isn’t. They just chose those letters at random because it was three dots and three dashes in Morse code. It was an easy thing to remember. “Save our souls” was fitted to the letters afterwards.
it makes sense- those just happened to be the simplest recognizable combination…
Exactly! But now because so few of us know the Morse code combinations, it can be easier to remember something like “save our souls.”
13/20. woah! ahaha
That’s actually a pretty good score. This was a tough test!
I got 15 out of 20. I was really surprised by some of those I got wrong.
There are a few surprises in the bunch, for sure! Some are really not obvious as acronyms. Others are so commonly believed to be real acronyms that people are sure the test is wrong.
I got 13 our of 20 right, but two of yours were wrong. Number 8. Golf stands for Guys Only Ladies Forbidden. And then SOS, stands for Save Our Ship. So all in all I got 15 out of 20.
Actually Kim, both of those are incorrect. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “golf” derives from the mid-15th-century Scottish word “gouf,” which essentially means “stick” or “club.” The false acronym only dates to about 1997.
As for SOS, it was “chosen arbitrarily as being easy to transmit and difficult to mistake. Not an initialism (acronym) for “save our ship” or anything else.” Both of these are examples of false acronyms that many people mistakenly believe to be real.
Great idea for a quiz! I got 15 out of 20, but would have done better if I have been confused at the start regarding just what Yes and No meant, in the context!
I meant to type: would have done better if I had not been confused at the start
Sorry about the confusion! “Yes” is to indicate that it’s a true acronym. “No” would be for an expression that isn’t really an acronym, even if some people think it is.