You may also be interested in knowing that a four letter acronym is not an FLA, but rather an ETLA, or Extended Three Letter Acronym. The rarer five letter acronym is either an EETLA or an XETLA as you prefer, for Expanded Extended Three Letter Acronym.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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YSK, if the letters are pronounced as a word, it's called an "acronym". For example, "VIN".
However, if the letters are pronounced individually, such as "FBI", "DEA", or "TLA", it's referred to as an "initialism".
YSK that it's an initialism, not an acronym. An acronym is pronounced like a word, for example FIFA or NASA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym
In English, the word is used in two ways. In the narrow sense, an acronym is a sequence of letters (representing the initial letters of words in a phrase) when pronounced together as a single word, like NASA, NATO, or laser. In the broad sense, the term includes this kind of sequence when pronounced letter by letter (such as GDP or USA). Sources that differentiate the two often call the former acronyms and the latter initialisms[1][2][3] or alphabetisms. However, acronym is popularly used to refer to either concept,[4] and both senses of the term are attributed as far back as the 1940s.[5]
It's an acronym, tho. From the Wiktionary page for 'acronym':
The broader sense of acronym inclusive of initialisms (as TNT) is sometimes proscribed[3] but was the term's original meaning and remains its more common meaning.
So it seems like a bunch of prescriptivists just made up this distinction, included it in some style guides, and then tried to proscribe the other meaning or something.
Every time you communicate an idea in a way a prescriptivist doesn't like, an angel gets its wings
Don't tell me how to pronounce TLA.
TLA Tequila?
TLLLLLLLLLLA
TIL
That's not a great acronym in a language where many different numerals start with the letter T. Could be a two letter acronym, ten letter acronym, twelve letter acronym, thirteen letter acronym, thirty letter acronym, thousand letter acronym, …
That's why YSK.
Because we have so many ten letter acronyms and exponentially more twelve, thirteen and thirty letter ones, that its simply too confusing for the advanced modern mind
Rather, two letter acronyms are less common and three letter acronyms are highly favoured in this language of ours
An autological acronym even, I love it!
Initialism, not acronym
I read the Wikipedia link above and decided idc ¯\(ツ)/¯
I like those slightly better than AWFLs
But nothing beats hot WAFLS in the morning!
AWFL is an Abbreviation With Four Letters.
Next is an ITHFL, or an Initialism That Has Five Letters.