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Let’s face it:  Most of us don’t have any idea what half of the computer-related acronyms* (“CRAs”?) and portmanteaus* (“CRACs”?) stand for. Every day they just seem to multiply.  Most of us, including the pros, can’t clearly explain exactly what many of them really stand for.  So, in the interest of making us all appear more intelligent, here’s a plain-English decoder (Computer Glossary) for at least some of the current, popular computer acronyms, terms and buzz words:

*Definition:  An acronym is created by using the initial letter of each of the terms in a longer definition (think: Enterprise Resource Planning = ERP ); a portmanteau is created by contracting two or more parts of words in a longer definition (think: smoke + fog = smog; modulator/demodulator = modem).  See, you’ve probably already learned something!

HOW TO USE THIS COMPUTER GLOSSARY:  CLICK THE FIRST LETTER OF YOUR ACRONYM OR TERM TO SEARCH THROUGH THE COMPUTER GLOSSARY:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

MOST POPULAR COMPUTER GLOSSARY SEARCH TERMS:  Cloud computing, Bits & Bytes, Spyware, Cable & Connector Photos, Port, RAM, Storage,  Surge Suppressor, Twitter, texting, tagging, 3G/4G.

RECENTLY ADDED OR REVISED TO THE COMPUTER GLOSSARY:   Social Networking, Cloud computing, QR codes, Screens, Keyboards, Cases, Linux, check disk, The Singularity, captcha, UEFI.

FURTHER EXPLANATION:

By now, you’ve probably noticed that this computer glossary didn’t stop with just acronyms.  That became impossible, because explaining the acronyms required some basic word definitions themselves.  Then some slang terms came into the picture.  And, of course, photos and diagrams aided the definitions. Even more so, some computer glossary items became so large that they merited their own separate page. 

Moreover, the mainstream adoption of the Mac and Linux operating systems merited their own pages and glossary terms as well.

You’ll also note that there are many definitions concerning cable, television, satellite, cellphones, smart phones and telephones.   This is because there is substantial overlap with computers in these areas (known as “convergence”), since computers have now become used increasingly for communications and entertainment. 

However, while the computer glossary has grown exponentially, the original “Acronym Decoder” title and mission nevertheless remains.  

For interesting information about the derivation of such symbols as the at (“@”), tilde (“~”), pipe (“|”), carat (“^”), ampersand (“&”), bracket (“[ ]”), braces (“{  }”), parenthesis (“(  )”), angle brackets (“<  >”), octothorpe (“ # “), asterisk (“ * “), virgule (“ /”) backslash (“ \ “), pilcrow (“ “), section sign (“ § “), interrobang (“ Interrobang copy1 “) [my personal favorite],  EM-Dash, EN-Dash (“---”) and other computer-related symbols, see those definitions within the  computer glossary.

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