« previous post | next post » Or maybe "initialism lengths"? Wiktionary defines initialism as "a term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter"; while some (fussy) people argue that the term acronym should be reserved for words like laser (= " L ight A mplification by S timulated E mission of R adiation") or NATO (= " N orth A tlantic T reaty O rganization"). Acronyms/Initialisms are (mostly) words, under any reasonable definition. But this category has the special property that most items have multiple specific and distinct senses, generally known to small groups and/or used in very special circumstances. For example, American linguists know that LSA stands for "The Linguistic Society of America" — but the LSA didn't act in time to lock up https://lsa.org , which belongs to the "Louisiana Sheriffs' Association". And Acronym Finder gives 123 interpretations for LSA , including the linguists but (curiously) not the sheriffs.…