Numeronym¶
A numeronym is an abbreviation where a number replaces the omitted middle letters of a word, typically the count of letters skipped. The pattern is: first letter + count + last letter.
Common examples in the PHP and broader software ecosystem:
- i18n: internationalization, with 18 letters between i and n
- l10n: localization
- a11y: accessibility
- k8s: Kubernetes, with 8 letters between K and s
- c10k: a special case: the letter c plus 10,000 connections, not strictly first/last but widely understood
- p13n: personalization
- o11y: observability
PHP uses i18n and l10n pervasively in documentation, library names like symfony/translation, gettext, and configuration keys. Recognising numeronyms reduces friction when reading technical documentation, RFC titles, and dependency names.
<?php
// i18n: internationalization
// The intl extension and gettext are PHP's native i18n tools
$fmt = new MessageFormatter('fr_FR', 'Bonjour {name}');
echo $fmt->format(['name' => 'Damien']); // Bonjour Damien
// l10n: localization — formatting numbers, dates, currencies per locale
$numFmt = new NumberFormatter('fr_FR', NumberFormatter::CURRENCY);
echo $numFmt->formatCurrency(1234.56, 'EUR'); // 1 234,56 €
// a11y: accessibility — not a PHP runtime concept,
// but relevant when generating HTML output from PHP templates
// c10k: see c10k.ini — the concurrency problem, not a strict numeronym
// but universally treated as one in server engineering discourse
?>
See also Wikipedia: Numeronym and PHP Internationalization.
Related : Internationalization, C10K, Encoding, Internationalization Functions
