Acronym Finder

Interpreter’s Resource Shelf (appeared in RID VIEWS January, 2006, reprinted with permission)
By Kathy MacMillan, M.L.S.

Acronym Finder
www.acronymfinder.com
For interpreters working in technical, medical, and military settings, acronyms can be a H/A – that’s “headache” for acronym users, and this well-organized website is a handy resource for figuring our what all those letters mean. Users can search for an exact acronym, for an acronym beginning with specific letters, or can do a reverse lookup by inputting words to find acronyms containing them. The results are broad (“RID” yields 32 results, ranging from “Robots in Disguise” to “Radioimmunodiffusion” to our own organization), but users can sort results to show certain categories, such as technology, military, or medical acronyms first. Most hits also link to more information at other websites, making this the ideal jumping-off point for an interpreter researching terminology for assignments. The handy “side-search” feature allows users to open the search box in a side frame, then go to other websites in the main frame. With over 2,444,000 entries, this user-friendly resource will make handling acronyms and abbreviations EAP. (You’ll have to go look that one up!)