Recursive acronym

Meaning

A recursive acronym is an abbreviation in which one of the letters stands for the abbreviation itself. PHP is the standard example, because the first P in PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor expands to PHP again, so the expansion could be repeated without end. The idea matters for exams and interviews, since a complete answer to the full form question mentions both the recursive form and the older meaning, Personal Home Page. The PHP manual itself describes the name this way. See also: PHP, and the guide PHP Full Form: Meaning, Origin and Why It Matters.