Acronyms, initialisms, an alphabetisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters (as in CEO), and/or parts of words (as in Benelux). There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see Nomenclature), nor on written usage (see Orthographic styling). While popular in recent English, such abbreviations have historical use in English, as well as other languages. As a type of word formation process, acronymy-initialisms are often viewed to be a subtype of shortening processes (other shortening processes being clipping and backformation).