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M$2.00  Funded By Mahalo ? |  April 17, 2009 05:50 PM

What is the plural of WMD?

Would it be WMDs? If so, wouldn't that just mean weapon of mass destructions? How do you pluralize something like WMD?
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modctek modctek
 
 April 17, 2009 06:17 PM
Though I'm sure this isn't a formal rule, pluralizing acronyms is commonly done by adding the "s" or "apostrophe-s" as in "WMD's". Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" does not have any advice on acronyms. Wikipedia's style guidelines suggest "-s" or "-es" for acronyms ending in vowels.

As you noted, this does end up creating an oddity if the pluralization is taken literally, though I wouldn't put it past a certain former president from saying it in exactly that fashion! ;-)
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Acronyms_and_abbrevi...

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dcanswerer dcanswerer
 
April 17, 2009 06:13 PM
The correct plural would be WMDs. When you turn an acronym into a plural, it does not make a plural of the last word, it makes a plural of the acronym. The same goes with the plural of Attorney General. If you are talking about the past two Attorneys General, you would still refer to them as AGs.

The "s" simply turns the entire acronym into a plural version, not just the last word.

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