Description

The HTML element <acronym> is used to define an acronym or abbreviation of a phrase.

The acronym or abbreviation is a short form of a phrase made of multiple words, which is usually a combination of the first letter of each word of the phrase.

Some of the examples are below.

  • The acronym for "World Health Organization" is WHO.
  • The acronym for "HyperText Markup Language" is HTML.

The below table summarizes its usage.

Usage Details
Placement It is displayed as an Inline element.
Contents It can contain Inline elements and text.
Tags Both opening and closing tags are required.
Versions HTML 4, 4.01
This element is deprecated in HTML 4.01 and obsolete in HTML5, so avoid using this element in your markup.
Instead, use the <abbr> element.

Syntax

Here is the basic syntax of the <acronym> element.

<acronym title="text">...</acronym>

Examples

Run this on IDE

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Example - HTML Element acronym</title>
</head>
<body>
    <p>An <acronym title="Automated Teller Machine">ATM</acronym> can be used to deposit and withdraw cash easily without going to a bank.</p>
</body>
</html>

Attributes

The following table shows the list of supported and unsupported attributes for the <acronym> element.

Attribute Type Details
Element-Specific Attributes The tag <acronym> doesn't have any element-specific attributes.
Global Attributes Like all other HTML tags, the tag <acronym> supports the HTML Global Attributes.
Event Attributes The tag <acronym> also supports the HTML Event Attributes.

Browser Compatibility

The tag <acronym> is supported in all modern browsers.

  • Google Chrome 1+
  • Internet Explorer or Edge 4+
  • Firefox 1+
  • Apple Safari 1+
  • Opera 6+

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