It has to do with how you say the abbreviation in question.

The use of social media and the web in general is awash with odd sayings and initialisms. Sometimes they leave users a little confused. Social media experts at How Sociable analysed Google searches ...

In a recent newsletter, we asked the question “Who’s minding the acronym store?” The major point there was that our industry has a most confusing habit of reusing the same combinations of letters for ...

I read with some amusement the letter from John Neumeyer regarding the use of acronyms in the literature without identifying their meaning (C&EN, March 30, page 2). I used to believe that any ...

If an abbreviation formed from the first letters of several words is pronounced as one word, it's an acronym. Gif, laser and snafu are examples. If such an abbreviation is known by its letters, it's ...