summing up an abbreviation is a shortening of a word or a phrase an acronym is an abbreviation that forms a word an initialism is an abbreviation that uses the first letter of each word in the phrase thus some but not all initialisms are acronyms
ROI, or return on investment, is a common business term used to identify past and potential financial returns. Managers and executives look to the ROI of a project or endeavor because this indicates how successful a venture will be.
For the term in meteorology, see Invest (meteorology). To invest is to allocate money (or sometimes another resource, such as time) in the expectation of some benefit in the future. In finance, the benefit from investment is called a return. The return may consist of capital gain or investment income, including dividends, interest, rental income etc., or a combination of the two. The projected economic return is the appropriately discounted value of the future returns.