Internet-related prefixes as a cultural reference to the rising popularity at that time of the prefix in product names. The word "virtual" is used in a similar way to the prefixes above, but it is an adjective instead of a prefix. For example, it is used in the terms "virtual reality", "virtual world", and "virtual sex". These prefixes are productive. Michael Quinion notes that most of these formations are nonce words that will never be seen again. He writes that new terms such as "e-health" are unneeded; in this case "telemedicine" already exists to describe the application of telecommunications to medicine. He
Three-letter acronym usefulness of TLAs typically comes from how it is quicker to say the acronym instead of than the phrase they represent, however saying 'WWW' in English requires three times as many syllables than the phrase it is meant to abbreviate (World Wide Web). Consequently, "www" is sometimes abbreviated as "dubdubdub" in speech. Three-letter acronym A three-letter acronym (TLA), or three-letter abbreviation, is an abbreviation, specifically an acronym, alphabetism, or initialism, consisting of three letters. These are usually the initial letters of the words of the phrase abbreviated, and are written in capital letters (upper case); three-letter abbreviations such as "etc."