abbreviation

Meaning

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

Synonyms

abridgement

shortening

acronym

abridgment

omission

shortness

initialism

summary

pr?cis

contraction

brief

epitome

abstract

ellipsis

gist

literation

reduction

shortcut

short form

summariness

terseness

trim

abbreviated form

shortened form

simplified character

simplified form of a character

omitting some passages

abbreviated style

act of cutting

contracted notation

abbr.

curtation

𐐲𐐺𐑉𐐨𐑂𐐮𐐩𐑇𐐲𐑌

abbreviate

abbreviated word

abbreviature

abridge

amortisation

amortization

apostrophe

brevity

briefness

conciseness

curtailment

curtness

default

deletion

Translations

abréviation

Abkürzung

abbreviazione

abreviación

abreviatura

afkorting

abreviação

abreviatura

abreviatura

συντομογραφία

kısaltma

sigle

Abbreviatur

abbreviatura

Pronounced as (IPA)

/əˌbɹiː.viˈeɪ.ʃən/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: abbreviacioun

In summary

First attested 1400–50. From Middle English abbreviacioun, from Middle French abreviation, from Ecclesiastical Latin abbreviātiō, from Latin ad + breviō (“shorten”), from brevis (“short”). By surface analysis, abbreviate + -ion.