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I'm writing a technical report and must use the plural form of LASER. Seeing as it is an acronym, how does one add the 's'?

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The acronym LASER describes a process, not equipment. Modern usage is lasing for the process, and laser has become an ordinary noun. So for multiple devices operating on the LASER principle: "lasers" or "LASERs". Preferably the first, without all caps.

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  • Laser sounds way cooler than light amplification by stimulated emission radiation.
    – Nick Bedford
    Apr 12, 2011 at 2:21
  • @nick: You missed an "of". But yes, that's the full name of the process or principle. And it raises the question of what making the acronym plural would mean... amplifications? radiations? I guess emissions would work, but that still doesn't convey multiple devices. No, Max definitely means laser and not LASER.
    – Ben Voigt
    Apr 12, 2011 at 2:26
  • @Ben: as you said yourself, the acronym only describes the physical process, so there is no plural form of the acronym itself. You amplify the light, whether you do it with one piece of equipment or with a thousand it doesn't matter!
    – nico
    Jun 9, 2011 at 4:50
  • @nico: Exactly right, that's why I said in my answer it's better not to capitalize.
    – Ben Voigt
    Jun 9, 2011 at 5:01
  • This is a phrase that is present in the NOAD: "Lasers are used in drilling and cutting, alignment and guidance, and in surgery." The NOAD describes laser as "a device that generates an intense beam of coherent monochromatic light.“
    – apaderno
    Jun 14, 2011 at 17:23
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  1. LASER is now almost universally spelled as a “normal” word and not as an acronym, as laser.
  2. Both acronyms and ordinary words are pluralized by adding s or es. The plural of LASER would be LASERs. The plural of laser is lasers.
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  • As I commented on the accepted answer, I don't really think there is a point in pluralising the acronym, as it refers to the physical process, rather than the machine.
    – nico
    Jun 9, 2011 at 7:59
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    Whether you like it or not, the acronym laser (whether capitalized as LASER or not) is used to refer to the equipment, and when referring to more than one machine, it follows the normal rules for English pluralization.
    – nohat ♦
    Jun 9, 2011 at 8:55
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    I never saw LASER used for the machine. I always saw LASER used as an acronym of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiations and laser used for the machine.
    – nico
    Jun 9, 2011 at 12:17
  • @nohat: The word that means the equipment is not and has never been an acronym. Rather it has the suffix -er, meaning "someone or something that does". Just as a lamplighter is someone who lights lamps, a laser is a device that does/causes LASER.
    – Ben Voigt
    Jun 14, 2011 at 18:24
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    It doesn't appear the spelling LASER ever much currency at all: ngrams.googlelabs.com/…
    – nohat ♦
    Jun 14, 2011 at 22:29
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"Laser" has long since entered the lexicon as a regular word instead of an acronym. True, it originally was an acronym for L ight A mplification by the S timulated E mission of R adiation, but that has gone the way of the horse and buggy since at least the 1970s.

The plural of "laser" is "lasers".

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