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.
2. (figuratively) An overabundance of acronyms and abbreviations.
   • 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. A quantity of people or organizations that are referred to by acronyms.

Translations

soup that contains noodles in the shape of alphabetical letters

• Finnish: aakkoskeitto
• German: Buchstabensuppe (de) f

• Portuguese: sopa de letrinhas (pt) f
• Spanish: sopa de letras f

overabundance of acronyms and abbreviations

• German: Abkürzungsdschungel m

• Portuguese: sopa de letrinhas (pt) f

Further reading

• Alphabet soup on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Alphabet soup (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Alphabet agencies on Wikipedia.Wikipedia