Difference between and ?

Question

Definitionally they seem the same, yet they are deemed dissimilar enough by the W3C to have separate tag definitions. What is the semantic difference between <acronym> and <abbr> in terms of linguistics, the HTML spec and interpretation.

im in favor of this http://camendesign.com/abbr_redux – Sharky May 25 '15 at 11:13 — Sharky, May 25 '15 at 11:13

score 57 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 26 '14 at 09:22

57

Actually, the differences are so small that HTML5 decided to drop acronym in favour of abbr.

edited Aug 26 '14 at 09:22

Nick F

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answered Jun 16 '09 at 12:16

Ms2ger

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@rTECH Why? The question was "what are the differences" and this answer says "the differences are small". It might be relevant, and it might be good to know, but this is not "the answer". – Mr Lister Dec 06 '17 at 18:36
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@MrLister That's only part of the question, and IMHO the least interesting part. The rest of the question is "what is the difference in terms of the HTML spec?", and the implied question is "which one should I use?". This answer points out that in fact the spec no longer does differentiate, and one of the tags has been deprecated. StackOverflow is about practical solutions as much as anything, and I (and probably many others) found this question while googling about which tag to use. This answer is the one that solves my real-life problem. – Ken Bellows Dec 20 '17 at 20:47
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@KenBellows Pfff, you might as well say " has wider browser support than ", which is also true, so it would favour over . As I mentioned, it's good to know, but not significant as an answer here. – Mr Lister Dec 20 '17 at 21:14
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@MrLister But it doesn't, actually, not substantially. has been supported since Firefox 1, Chrome 2, and IE 7. As for significance, it's exactly as significant as the accepted answer, just according to the literal wording of the OP. The accepted answer only addresses part of the OP: the linguistics. This answer addresses another part: the HTML spec. The OP literally asked for both. And again, between the two, this answer has far more practical application for your code. – Ken Bellows Dec 20 '17 at 21:38

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 25 '16 at 14:41

27

An acronym is made of the initial letters of some words (e.g.Hypertext Mark-up Language => HTML), while an abbreviation is a shortened form of a word (e.g. abbreviation => abbr).

Wikipedia gives a more accurate view of the nitty-gritty details.

edited Jan 25 '16 at 14:41

GLlompart

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answered Jun 15 '09 at 21:56

brian-brazil

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This is not english.stackexchange.com. Are you sure that those are the recommended semantic usage for HTML? – Pacerier Jul 12 '12 at 23:54
Why is this the accepted answer? It doesn't come address the question which is also about the HTML elements, and not just linguistics. – Richard Smith Apr 18 '20 at 11:41

score 21 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 15 '09 at 22:04

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abbreviation: A shortened form of a word.
ex: lb., amt., mgmt.

initialism: An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of a phrase
ex: HTML, SVG

acronym: An initialism that is pronounced as a word.
ex: radar, scuba, JIT, WYSIWYG

answered Jun 15 '09 at 22:04

Kenan Banks

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score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 16 '14 at 23:54

9

Old question aside, the <acronym> tag is not supported in HTML5. Use the <abbr> tag instead.

answered Oct 16 '14 at 23:54

boars

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score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 15 '09 at 21:58

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#edef-ABBR says:

Western languages make extensive use of acronyms such as "GmbH", "NATO", and "F.B.I.", as well as abbreviations like "M.", "Inc.", "et al.", "etc.". Both Chinese and Japanese use analogous abbreviation mechanisms, wherein a long name is referred to subsequently with a subset of the Han characters from the original occurrence.

So I guess Aa Bb Cccccc -> ABC is acronym, -> Ab Bb Ccc. is abbreviation. Practically I saw people use <abbr>.

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 25 '13 at 06:07

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Abbreviation is just a short form of a word or a phrase while acronym represents each letter in a word (e.g. ASAP: as soon as possible).

edited Aug 25 '13 at 06:07

Sergey Telshevsky

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answered Aug 25 '13 at 05:20

Yassir z ishaq

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 10 '13 at 12:37

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abbr: uses short form of the word. example:- U.K. for United Kingdom acronym: word formed from the initial parts of a name, such as Commintern, from Communist International

answered Feb 10 '13 at 12:37

RADHESHYAM KUMAWAT

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Difference between and ?

7 Answers7