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K9turrent t1_ja83u8u wrote

Reply to comment by its-a-throw-away_ in Eli5: what’s the difference between a graduate and undergraduate degree by deadpuppy101

TIL PhD is an acronym.

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EightOhms t1_ja84wnr wrote

It's not actually. It's an abbreviation. Acronyms are a subset of abbreviations that form a word you can say. That means most of the time they need to have a vowel.

For example, NASA is an acronym whereas FBI is not. NASA you pronounce as if it's a single word. FBI you pronounce by saying all its letters individually, just like PhD

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Martian8 t1_ja8661o wrote

Additionally, FBI is an initialism - another subset of abbreviations made from initial letters that are pronounced separately. Whereas PhD is not since Ph is not an initial

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K9turrent t1_ja898ki wrote

TIL I don't actually know my native language that well.

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aceguy123 t1_ja89jgi wrote

You need a graduate degree to understand

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LikesTheTunaHere t1_ja8er6d wrote

I have a masters in bation though and it hasn't helped me understand this stuff at all.

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GaiasEyes t1_ja8b96z wrote

PhD stands for doctorate of philosophy. It’s an abbreviation, not an acronym.

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ConnieKai t1_ja8lf4o wrote

Also want to add on to this that there are other doctoral programs that do not end in PhD. For example you could get a PhD in Psychology where you do a ton of research. Or a PsyD where it is less research and moreso you learning more real world clinical skills

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