abbreviation

Meaning

Noun

• The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
• A shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole, utilizing omission of letters, and sometimes substitution of letters, or duplication of initial letters to signify plurality, including signs such as +, =, @.
• The process of abbreviating.
• A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
• One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.
• Any convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.
• Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
• Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.

Related

Similar words

• abbreviature; abridgement; abstract; compend; compression; condensation; contraction; curtailment; epitome; reduction; shortcut; summary

Opposite words

• amplification; dilation; enlargement; expansion; expatiation; extension; production

Narrower meaning words

• acronym ; clipping ; initialism ; symbol, sign

Origin

• First attested 1400–50. From Middle English abbreviacioun, from Middle French abréviation, from Late Latin abbreviātiō, from Latin ad + breviō, from brevis.
• Morphologically abbreviate + -ion