Um, you have that backwards. An acronym can be pronounced and is accepted as a word: RADAR, LIDAR, SONAR, SCUBA, PATRIOT, and so on. IBM is merely an abbreviation (or initialism) because you say "eye bee em."

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In reply to Re^2: Determining if a word is really an abbreviation by halley
in thread Determining if a word is really an abbreviation by Anonymous Monk

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