The term ‘jargon’ is often confused for ‘slang’, and on some occasions their perception may overlap, or at least be included in explaining each other’s meaning. The specialized language used by pilots, air traffic controllers and other members of the flight crew is also referred to as ‘lingo’. Nevertheless, ‘slang’ is most often associated with an informal manner of addressing communication partners, such as people belonging to the same social class or sharing similar professional backgrounds, whereas the term ‘euphemism’ indicates a distortion of reality with the aimed purpose of hiding the harshness of the real meaning. In the complex world of aviation, specialized vocabulary, made up of technical references, radio phraseologies, various typologies of acronyms and abbreviations, is but one part of the ‘lingo’ associated with the profession of a pilot. Added to it are the restricted language codes, particular utterances of messages, and a distinct use of language structures.

Acronyms, or initialisms, are words/phrases made up of the initial letters of their component terms, with those letters pronounced as one word. The term acronym is supposed to have been used later than the term abbreviation.

Abbreviations are shortened or contracted forms of words/phrases.