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Acronym capitalization.

Q:

Sometimes I see acronyms in all uppercase, sometimes all lowercase, and sometimes in mixed case. What is the correct capitalization of acronyms?

A:

Usually, acronyms are all caps, being the first letter of each word in the phrase: NASA, UN.

Sometimes such acronyms become words and go to all lower-case: snafu, tanstaafl.

Some start out in all lower-case, especially when they are made from syllables of words and designed to be pronounceable: radar (radio detecting and ranging.)

This last may have capital letters scattered here and there, reflecting capital letters in the original proper nouns: SoHo (south of Houston Street) in New York City.

The London neighborhood, however, is spelled Soho; it's just a name.

Submitted by: Anonymous
Last Updated: May 9th, 2002