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

?>

Documentation

See also PHP Internationalization.

Related : Internationalization, C10K, Encoding, Internationalization Functions