<acronym>: The ACRONYM Element
Last updated: 2026-10-13
<acronym>The ACRONYM Element
Marks an acronym (e.g. NASA, HTML) and may give the full expansion via title. HTML5 has deprecated it—use <abbr> instead.
| Category | Text Content |
|---|---|
| Content Model | Flow content |
| Allowed Parents | Any element that accepts flow content |
| Content Tag | Yes — requires closing </acronym> tag |
| Status | Obsolete |
📝 Syntax
<acronym title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym>⚙️ Attributes
This element supports the global attributes plus the following:
| Attribute | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
title | The full expansion of the acronym. |
▶ Example
Edit the code below and see the live result in the playground:
🌐 Browser Support
| Browser |  Chrome |
 Edge |
 Firefox |
 Safari |
 Opera |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <acronym> | ✓ v1 | ✓ v12 | ✓ v1 | ✓ v1 | ✓ v1 |
| Supported in all major browsers | |||||
Tip： acronym is obsolete in HTML5; use <abbr> for new projects.
❓ FAQ
QCan the acronym tag still be used?
ANo.
<acronym> was formally dropped in HTML5; browsers still render it for compatibility, but new projects must not use it. The replacement is <abbr> — HTML5 no longer distinguishes acronyms from general abbreviations.QWhat was the original difference between acronym and abbr?
AIn the old spec,
<acronym> was for acronyms pronounced as words (NASA) and <abbr> for letter-by-letter ones (FBI). HTML5 decided the distinction could not be applied consistently and merged both into <abbr>.QDo old pages need acronym migration?
ARecommended: change
<acronym title='…'> to <abbr title='…'>. The attribute structure is identical, so the swap is lossless and also clears validator errors, smoothing future upgrades.🏷️ Related Tags
💡 Related Cases
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📚 Related Tutorials
