alphabet soup

English
A nearly empty bowl of alphabet soup (sense 1) with noodles spelling out “the end” on the side

Noun

alphabet soup (countable and uncountable, plural alphabet soups)

  1. A type of soup that contains noodles in the shape of various alphabetical letters, sometimes also numbers.
    Meronym: alfabeto
    Parents have been entertaining their children at mealtime with alphabet soup since the nineteenth century.
  2. (figuratively) An overabundance of acronyms and abbreviations, causing crypticness for noninitiates.
    The various engineering teams' correspondence on circuit board design was an alphabet soup to outsiders.
    • 2006, Amy L. Stone, More than adding a T: transgender inclusion in Michigan gay rights ordinances, 1992-2000:
      And particularly in headlines and written materials, gay was used over LGBT. One ambivalent heterosexual ally explained this decision-making: I think there were several people who were sensitive to issues like that about do we use the word lesbian? Do we use the word transgender? And it's not that we didn't use those words, but in general, if you're doing a brochure and you have a headline, you don't include the whole alphabet soup.
  3. (figuratively, metonymically) A quantity of people or organizations that are referred to by acronyms.
    Coordinate term: alphabet agencies
    too many three-letter agencies, constituting an alphabet soup

Translations

Further reading
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