alphabet soup

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.
   • Meronym: alfabeto
   • Parents have been entertaining their children at mealtime with alphabet soup since the nineteenth century.
2. (figuratively) An overabundance of acronyms and abbreviations, causing crypticness for noninitiates.
   • The various engineering teams' correspondence on circuit board design was an alphabet soup to outsiders.
3. (figuratively, metonymically) A quantity of people or organizations that are referred to by acronyms.
   • Coordinate term: alphabet agencies
   • too many three-letter agencies, constituting an alphabet soup