Acronym vs. Abbreviation Jan05 '05

In the English language, there is a small, yet subtle difference between an acronym and an abbreviation, which can be applied to your HTML.

There are two elements in HTML that provide more information about instances of words that are referenced by using only the first letter of each word: <abbr> and <acronym>. By utilizing these elements, you can help readers make sense of acronyms or abbreviations that they are unfamiliar with. This is an important accessibility step.

An important distinction has to be made when using either <abbr> or <acronym> elements.

For a while, I only used <acronym>, simply because I thought it covered all scenarios, and I didn’t see the point in using <abbr>. I recently discovered I was wrong.

The distinction

Let’s see if you can spot the difference (hover over each to display meaning):

Acronym: NATO, USAMRIID, GUI
Abbreviation: XHTML, CSS

If you have trouble spotting the difference, the explanation follows.

An acronym can be spoken out. In other words, the group of letters merge to form a word themselves. So, instead of saying each letter separately, you say just one complete word.

An abbreviation must be taken at face value. Each letter is unique, and you must speak each letter separately. As with most abbreviations, they can’t be spoken out anyway. Try pronouncing XHTML as a word. Kinda sloppy, eh?

The markup

To use these elements in HTML, and make your text more understandable, simply use the tag with a title attribute::

<acronym title="North Atlantic Treaty Organization">NATO</acronym>

<abbr title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language">XHTML</abbr>

Best practices

Now... should you define your acronyms and abbreviations EVERY time they occur on a page?

Some say yes, others no. There is really no official answer. It depends on the context.

For example, it would make sense to only define your acronyms or abbreviations ONCE – in the beginning – if the context is only a paragraph or two. That way, if the reader is confused, they can look up to the first occurance of the acronym or abbreviation, and reference what it means, without losing their place.

However, things change when the context becomes much larger. If someone visits the page, and is linked to a specific portion of the page, they may miss the first occurance of the acronym or abbreviation. Then they would have to go searching for it.

I think it’s better to define them too much, than too little. It can’t hurt.

Use your best judgement. Pretend you are a "first time visitor" to the site, and see how well you react to the acronyms or abbreviations.

Categories: Semantics , XHTML

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matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.