Words for acronym, initialism and abbreviation Looking up these three words it's not clear which is which and often 缩写 seems to be used in most cases I've come across, which doesn't seem to be correct. 

Can someone confirm what are the equivalents in Chinese for these three words:

acronym; initialism; abbreviation?
缩 in 缩写 means "to condense/ to contract" 

Acronym and initialism are both (首字母)缩写. (contracting a phrase using the first alphabet of each word in the phrase)
聯邦調查局 (Federal Bureau of Investigation) 的 (首字母)缩写 是 FBI

中央情報局 (Central Intelligence Agency) 的 (首字母)缩写 是 CIA

abbreviation is (字句)缩写 (abbreviate a phrase by omitting some part of it) ; 簡化; 簡稱 

Example: 


中央情報局 簡稱 中情局 (the abbreviation of 中央情報局 is 中情局)
美國 其實是 阿美利堅合眾國 的簡稱 (America is actually the abbreviation of United States of America)
阿美利堅合眾國 (United States of America) 的 (首字母)缩写 是 USA


The difference between acronym and initialism is,  you can read acronym as one word e.g. Mothers Against Drunk-driving = MAD. But you read each alphabet in an initialism

Basically 缩写 is a correct translation of all three terms