This site functions as both an Acronym Finder, where you can find an acronym based on keywords or entire phrases, and as an Acronym Dictionary, where you can find the meaning of an acronym.
The problem with most acronym reference sites on the Internet (even so-called Web 2.0 sites) is that they simply provide a list of definitions for each acronym. Many acronyms can be expanded in more than one way. The different possibilities almost always result in completely different meanings. Any the various possible expansions could have been the definition that was intended in the original context. The acronyms that are used on the Internet really need to be disambiguated.
Fortunately, there is a way for acronyms to be disambiguated using established Internet standards. This site not only is a Semantic Web site itself, but also shows you examples of the HTML code that can be used for acronyms in your web pages so that your web site can also become part of the Semantic Web.
For a good example, see Content Aggregator, which uses these techniques to indicate when the acronym RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and when it stands for RDF Site Summary.
Another goal of this site is to promote the proper use of acronym terminology, in contrast to other acronym dictionaries that provide every possible expansion of an acronym, whether correct or incorrect. For example, Google's cache for RFC 2821 for SMTP shows that some sites are linking to that page using the term Transport instead of Transfer. Acronyms.net is designed to allow terms to be looked up easily, so that there should no longer be any excuse for using the wrong terminology.
To find an acronym, select the the first letter of any word in the acronym under Acronym Finder below, or under Terms if you know the first word of the term. To find the definition of acronyms in the acronym dictionary, select the initial letter of an acronym in the Acronyms column below.
Last updated Tuesday September 30, 2008
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