History Main / AcronymConfusion

* In game-related contexts, AC will be mostly associated with ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed''. Or the term "Armor Class". Nintendo fans, however, may think of ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' or ''VideoGame/AstralChain''. Some FROM Software fans may think of ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore''. Some Namco fans may think of ''VideoGame/AceCombat''. And ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' fans may think of ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]''. It can also stand for "Altador Cup", a major annual event on the online game ''Website/{{Neopets}}''. In Japan, "AC" literally stands for "arcade cabinet" and is used to refer to arcade games. Outside the context of gaming, AC can also stand for "alternating current", "air conditioning", and in military usage, "autocannon".

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' has two games that share "SA": ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy Sonic Advance]]''. Adding further confusion, both received numbered sequels; [=SA2=] is usually ''Sonic Adventure 2'', but could also be ''Sonic Advance 2''. However, the confusion ends there and there is only one SA3 (''Sonic Advance 3''). Outside of ''Sonic'' contexts, SA also stands for South Australia, South America, and South Africa, among [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SA other things]].

* Among film award circles, the HSFC is the initialism used for both the [[http://hifilmcriticssociety.org/ Hawaii Film Critics Society]] and the [[https://houstonfilmcritics.com/ Houston Film Critics Society]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/Everhood'' with the ATM and the V.I.P card. ATM stands for Automated '''Terror''' Machine, and according to the item flavor text for the V.I.P card, V.I.P stands for Ventriloquist Improvisor Puppeteer's Club. The C is silent.

* NFC can either stand for '''N'''ear-'''F'''ield '''C'''ommunication, a protocol for electronic devices and smart-tags to communicate with each other with, or '''N'''orwegian '''F'''orest '''C'''at, a breed of cat. Which you can probably put a collar with an NFC tag on.

[[folder:Film]]

* FF: ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' or ''VideoGame/FatalFury''? Or maybe ''VideoGame/FatalFrame''? Or ''ComicBook/FantasticFour''?

See also FunWithAcronyms, ShoehornedAcronym, and AcronymAndAbbreviationOverload. Can overlap with NamesTheSame.

* Unfortunately common. On top of the International Wrestling Association, a group of territories banded together to compete against the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance, being in a few different countries as IWA, and ''[[NamesTheSame another]]'' International Wrestling Association, a collaboration between promoters in Puerto Rico and Japan, there is also and Independent Wrestling Association and an Independent Wrestling Alliance, so if you get fans from different regions together, throwing around IWA without context is liable to confuse them. Occasionally promotions in the same country will have the same acronym, such as Ultimate Pro Wrestling and United Pro Wrestling in the USA (though they were on opposite sides of the country), Pure Wrestling Association and Prairie Wrestling Association in Canada. Then there are unfortunate cases such as Warriors Of Wrestling, a program from the 1990s and Women Of Wrestling, a program from 2001, which both got revivals around the same time, meaning there were two [=WOW=]s at once. The National Wrestling Alliance itself was preceded by the National Wrestling Association, which went out of business one year after the Alliance was founded but whose Midwest Tag Team titles were defended on the independent circuit as late as 2013.

* When the fifth ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' game was announced as ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', it was quite confusing for those who had previously abbreviated ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForWiiU'' as '''SSBU'''.

* IPA can stand for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_pale_ale India Pale Ale]] (a kind of beer), and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet International Phonetic Alphabet]] (an international phonetic transcription system).

* SRS: [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} Sex reassignment/reconstructive surgery]], or [[VideoGame/{{Tetris}} Super Rotation System]]?

* STI: Sexually Transmitted Infection, or Creator/{{Sega}} Technical Institute?

* ''[[Literature/{{Emberverse}} Dies The Fire]]''. An ex-recon Marine is asked post-coitus about a scar he got during Desert Storm. He says it's from an [[CoolGuns/RocketsMissilesAndGrenadeLaunchers RPG]], causing the puzzled woman to wonder how you get a scar during a RolePlayingGame.

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* KKK can mean the infamous UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan and the Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan,[[note]]Highest and Most Honorable Society of the Children of the Nation[[/note]] the most famous LaResistance group in the colonial Philippines and widely considered and revered in the nation the forerunner of the First Philippine Republic. This has caused some shock for American tourists when they see murals or paintings of the group with "KKK" proudly displayed therein.
** And for Portuguese speakers, using "KKK" or more "K"s on the Internet actually means an [[WrittenSoundEffect onomatopoeiac laughter]],[[note]]"K" in Portuguese is pronounced as "kah", at least in the Brazilian dialect[[/note]] which can usually sound weird [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike especially for English speakers when they don't understand the language]].

* In the United States, "SC" refers to the state of South Carolina. Within Northern California, it means the city of Santa Cruz...unless you're in the Silicon Valley area, in which case it refers to the city of Santa Clara.
** Gets even more fun among fans of ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', as it can stand for 'Softcore' (to differentiate from hardcore) or 'Seal Clubber', one of the classes. So you can be an SC SC from SC.
* S.F. is either UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco or the initials and an alias of Creator/{{Konami}} in-house musician Sota Fujimori. Or you could be talking about Science Fiction, although God help you if you dare to use the initials around Creator/HarlanEllison...
** Fighting game fans will think of ''Franchise/StreetFighter'', Nintendo fans will think of ''VideoGame/StarFox'' and old-school Sega fans will think of ''VideoGame/ShiningForce''. A certain niche of RPG fans will think of ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier''.

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[[caption-width-right:300:Wrestling/{{WWF}} + [[https://www.worldwildlife.org/ WWF]] = Complete pandamonium]]

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* MHX: Mysterious Heroine X from ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', or ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter X''. Even more confusingly, there's also MHXX, as there's also a Mysterious Heroine XX and a ''Monster Hunter XX''. Averted outside of Japan where those two ''Monster Hunter'' games are instead called ''Monster Hunter Generations'' and ''Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate'' respectively.

* In the medical field, DNR stands for "Do Not Resuscitate", meaning that for one reason or another, medical staff are ordered not to try to revive a patient if their heart stops beating. People in this field thus get very confused when hotel workers talk about putting a particularly problematic guest on DNR, which in hospitality-speak means [[PersonaNonGrata "Do Not Rent"]]. And gods forbid you have to put someone on either DNR status in Ukraine or Russia, where "DNR" stands for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donetsk_People%27s_Republic Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika]] (Donetsk People's Republic).

* TPP: ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemon'', ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Phantom Pain]]'', or the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Searching for "TPP Bill" will get you results for the American approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, although you may be looking for Bill as the villain of ''Twitch Plays Pokémon''.

* NCR: [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} New California Republic]], or the U.S. corporation formerly known as National Cash Register? Fans of the ''Fallout'' games working for the company might find their brains a little twisted.

* In Portuguese, PCC is usually referred for a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primeiro_Comando_da_Capital notable crime group]] in Brazil or the Chinese Communist Party, which led to [[BlackComedy jokes]] between the two.

* MAP: To the dismay of many internet artists, this can stand for either '''M'''ulti '''A'''nimator '''P'''roject ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an animation project]] composed of segments drawn by different people) or '''M'''inor '''A'''ttracted '''P'''erson (a pedophile). The online animation community has debated whether to change their acronym to avoid [[MistakenForPedophile being mistaken for perverts]], or keep it and try to supplant the other meaning.

* IRA has at least two meanings. A big american fast-food company that set up in Britain elected to save a few thousand dollars in overheads by using its original American payroll stationery, figuring that British employees would get that they were being paid in £ rather than $ and most of the standard headings could be transposed. They ran into trouble when employees saw a heading for "IRA Deductions". In British terms, what Americans call an "Individual Retirement Account" might be "Employer/Employee's Pension Contribution". Unfortunately the acronym, in Britain, is most commonly interpreted as "Irish Republican Army" - a terrorist organisation that was very active at the time. and the story went out that employee wages were being deducted as a contribution to terrorism, and what else can you expect from Irish-Americans, they fund most of it anyway... that payroll stationery was ''very'' quickly replaced in the British operation.

* PVA glue is polyvinyl acetate, but the initialism can also stand for polyvinyl alcohol, a different substance. Strangely, either can be used in conjunction with Borax to form slime.
* QB: The ''Anime/QueensBlade'' franchise, [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball a Quarter Back]], or the slightly-sinister MentorMascot from ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''?

* American universities tend to get this in spades (with the "GSU" entry above as an extreme example). The University of Southern California is rarely referred to by anything ''other'' than "USC", but alumni of the University of South Carolina always insist that they're "the real USC". Likewise, Oregon State, Ohio State, and Oklahoma State all use the "OSU" initialism, "UNH" is both the University of New Hampshire and the University of New Haven (Connecticut), and "MSU", um...yeah. That could be Michigan State[[note]]the most common meaning outside of relatively local regions around the others, and msu.edu belongs to them[[/note]] or Mississippi State... or Montana State, Morehead State, Morgan State, Missouri State[[note]]formerly SMS (Southwest Missouri State)[[/note]], Murray State, or [=McNeese=] State...or Minnesota State, Mountain State (now defunct), Montclair State, Metropolitan State (completely separate schools in UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} and [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities St. Paul]]), or Minot State. And that's just in the United States; there's also the Russian universities Maritime State and Moscow State, as well as the Indian Maharaja Sayajirao and Manonmaniam Sundaranar. Or UsefulNotes/{{Moldova}} State University, the Mahendra Sanskrit University in UsefulNotes/{{Nepal}}, the Mindanao State University in the Philippines, the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, the Mahasarakham University in UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}}, the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Turkey, and UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}'s Midlands State University. In a similar vein, UM could refer to the University of Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Maine, or Montana. (This is why the "M" will sometimes be followed by a few more letters, like "U-Mich" or "[=UMass=]".[[note]]Or, another term can be used. Mississippi will use "UM" in some academic contexts, but more often uses "Ole Miss", which is the athletic department's ''only'' approved term. Missouri uses UM in some contexts, officially calls its athletic program "Missouri", but affectionately uses "Mizzou".[[/note]]) As noted above, {{averted|Trope}} by the University of Kansas, which calls itself "KU" and leaves "UK" to the University of Kentucky.

* IPA can stand for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_pale_ale India Pale Ale]] (a kind of beer), and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet International Phonetic Alphabet]] (an international phonetic transcription system).

* Trent Hamilton got the meaning of USSR wrong when discussing a Soviet Cornet (he thought it stood for [[CriticalResearchFailure United States of Soviet Russia]]). In a second video, he apologized, and said USSR stood for the United Stitching and Sewing Ring, the Underground Society of Secret Rhythm, Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading, or [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]--whichever the watcher liked best.

** In "Duffless":
--->'''Chief Wiggum:''' Uh, Mrs. Simpson, I have some bad news. Your husband was found DOA.\\
'''Marge:''' Oh my god! He's ''dead''?\\
'''Chief Wiggum:''' Oh wait, I mean DWI. I always get those two mixed up.\\
''[Mrs. Phillips walks in.]''\\
'''Mrs. Phillips:''' My name's Mrs. Phillips. You said my husband is DWI?\\
'''Chief Wiggum:''' Uh, why don't you talk to that officer over there? I'm going out to lunch.