ISIS doesn't want to be known by this name anymore

For the majority of Americans, the Islamic State group responsible for the Paris attacks of Nov. 13 and a slew of other atrocities is known as ISIS. That stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The group has also been known as ISIL, a term the president has used from time to time. That more geographically-specific name stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Others will go for the less specific acronym of IS, which stands merely for Islamic State. All of these acronyms refer to the same group. Various outlets use the acronyms.

SEE ALSO: US security response to Paris attacks likely can't stop ISIS

But the one thing all those acronyms have in common is that they legitimize group's power by referring to it as a state.

That is part of why members and leaders in the organization don't like the new term that's starting to be used -- "Daesh." It's an acronym for the group's full Arabic name: Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham. U.S. officials have started using "Daesh" more frequently in recent months.

"We're going to defeat Daesh," Defense Secretary Ash Carter told troops in Baghdad in July. "I don't have any doubt about it."

"To self-radicalized fighters living among us, their minds poisoned by Daesh's propaganda," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during a press conference following the terrorist attacks in France.

Second, "Daesh" also has pejorative connotations in Arabic. Many experts have said has a silly barbaric connotation, which explains why the group has reportedly threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone it catches using the word.

Read more special coverage about the rise of ISIS:
ISIS wanted to strike beyond its 'caliphate' long before the Paris attacks
Officials: IS determined to produce chemical weapons
The complicated origin of ISIS explained