Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Abbreviations#Using sourceable abbreviations

The style guide says

"Modern style is to use a full point (period) after a shortening (see § Shortenings for exceptions) but no full points within an acronym. In the unusual case of an acronym containing full points between letters, it should also have a full point after the final letter."

It specifies acronym, but not initialism or other abbreviations, and it's not clear whether this rule applies to all. There are very few of these in British and Australian English that retain full stops - UK, CSIRO, etc. It's not common usage to insert full stops in or after MSc, PhD, BA, etc. (and spelt thus on the DAB pages), but the guidance is not clear in this style guide. Can we establish consensus here to elucidate what is preferred (including alternatives if needed, and examples). Laterthanyouthink (talk) 10:06, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

:* On the initialism point: acronym is commonly (usually?) understood in a broader sense with no distinction made between those that are read as individual letters versus as syllabic words. Maybe this is overly blunt, but this seems like a technicality that could only generate confusion if one is going out of their way to wedge their way into it

:* I swear the MOS mentions not to dot [{xt|PhD}} somewhere. Not sure if it's in all the right places, but at some point the MOS can't be taken accountable for all the things we must learn eventually, esp. as it is less commonly used compared to other expressly mentioned exceptions.

:Remsense ‥ 论 10:36, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

::You may be thinking of where it appears in the MOS:COMMONABBR list. Gog the Mild (talk) 12:47, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

::When did this "broader sense" come into use? I was always taught that an acronym was called that because it made an actual word ("name", thus "-nym") and not a bunch of letters. I will resist the urge to be equally blunt about those who use this "broader sense". --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:58, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

:::See acronym. Gog the Mild (talk) 16:33, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

::::Agree with {{u|Khajidha}} - not the way I was taught, even if it does appear to be wrongly used frequently, especially by Americans, I think. Wikipedia makes the distinction in the templates :Template:R from acronym and :Template:R from initialism. And whatever you think about the usage of the words acronym and initialism, IMO opinion it is better to spell it out here for those of use who do make the distinction.

::::Thank you, {{u|Gog the Mild}}, for that link. I did not spot it because I did not scroll down that far, thinking that I had found the correct spot for what I was looking for. I will add it as a see also at the top of the full stops section - feel free to discuss further here if you don't like the look of it. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 03:31, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

:::::I won't oppose that. Remsense ‥ 论 03:37, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

:::{{tqq|When did this "broader sense" come into use?}} {{mdash}} According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 6th edition, the definition for acronym includes "a word formed from initial letters ...; loosely an abbreviation composed of initial letters. M20", ie since mid-20th century (1930–1969). It's not clear whether M20 applies to "loosely an abbreviation..." or only to "a word formed from initial letters", but the 6th edition was published in 2007 so the broader sense has certainly been around since then. Mitch Ames (talk) 10:45, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

:How did they come to be referred to as “full points” in the MoS, anyway? Thats a minority usage, compared to the much more common “period” (US) or “full stop” (UK+). Introducing a third term when the MoS already contains the main two variants is hardly helpful? MapReader (talk) 13:36, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Editors are invited to comment at {{section link|Template talk:Country data U.S. Virgin Islands|Undotted "US Virgin Islands" as shortname alias?}} on whether "U.S. Virgin Islands" or "US Virgin Islands" should be used Shingkei (talk) 00:33, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

Regarding Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Abbreviations/Archive 6#The abbr template - how often? - {{user|Mauls}} is doing it again, see User talk:Mauls#Your reverts of my edits. Notifying {{u|Primefac}} who participated last time. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:44, 7 December 2024 (UTC)

When using an acronym in parentheses for the first time in an article after the full title is used, e.g. World Health Organization (WHO): does the wikilink go in the full title or the acronym? This should be clarified. – yutsi (talk) 16:15, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

:Should it be whichever of the two is the title of the article? Largoplazo (talk) 17:20, 20 March 2025 (UTC)