Word.ws English Dictionary

backronyms

backronyms is the plural of backronym.

backronyms is the third-person singular simple present indicative of backronym.

Meaning of backronym

Noun

backronym (plural backronyms)

  1. A word that is originally not an acronym but is turned into one by devising a full form for it, sometimes as a folk etymology, sometimes as a contrived acronym to name a new organization, proposal, or other entity.
    • [T]he phenomenon has been dubbed STEVE, a backronym that matches the name originally given by aurora watchers. (STEVE is short for "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.")2018 March 14, Sarah Lewin, “Meet ‘Steve,’ the Aurora-Like Mystery Scientists Are Beginning to Unravel”, in space.com, archived from the original on 21 Aug 2019, retrieved 17 Mar 2018
  2. A phrase which assigns a morpheme or word to each letter of a pre-existing acronym.

See all 3 meanings of backronym

Questions about backronyms

What is backronyms the plural of?
Backronyms is the plural of backronym.

Words near backronyms in the dictionary

  1. backronymed
  2. backronymic
  3. backronyming
  4. backronymmed
  5. backronymming
  6. backronyms
  7. backronymy
  8. backroom
  9. backroom boy
  10. backroom boys
  11. backroom staff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backronyms (page history and authors); backronym (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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