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Who coined the word laser?

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The American physicist Gordon Gould coined the word laser in 1957.12

The term is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," which describes the process by which the device generates a beam of coherent electromagnetic radiation. Gould developed the name while conducting early research into the technology, though the credit for the invention of the laser itself became the subject of intense, long-standing legal disputes with other scientists, including Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow.3412