abbreviation
See also: Abbreviation
- For abbreviations in Wiktionary, see Category:Abbreviations by language
English Edit
Alternative forms Edit
Etymology Edit
First attested 1400–50. From Middle English abbreviacioun, from Middle French abreviation, from Ecclesiastical Latin abbreviātiō, from Latin ad + breviō (“shorten”), from brevis (“short”). Morphologically abbreviate + -ion
Pronunciation Edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˌbɹiː.viˈeɪ.ʃən/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /əˌbɹi.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Noun Edit
abbreviation (countable and uncountable, plural abbreviations), used with for or of
- The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
- (linguistics) 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 +, =, @. [Late 16th century.][1]
- Hants is an abbreviation of Hampshire.
- The process of abbreviating. [Mid 16th century.][1]
- (music) A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
- (music) 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.
- 1946-1947, President Truman's committee on Civil Rights
- The phrase "civil rights" is an abbreviation for a whole complex of relationships.
- 1946-1947, President Truman's committee on Civil Rights
- (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
- (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.
Synonyms Edit
- abbreviature; abridgement; abstract; compend; compression; condensation; contraction; curtailment; epitome; reduction; shortcut; summary
Antonyms Edit
Hyponyms Edit
- (linguistics): acronym (employing initial letters or syllables); clipping (omitting several letters); initialism (employing initial letters); symbol, sign (employing marks other than letters)
Derived terms Edit
Translations Edit
shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase
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abridged version of a document
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act or result of shortening or reducing
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music: a notation used in music score to denote a direction
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music: one or more dashes through the stem of a note
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mathematics: reduction to lower terms
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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References Edit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abbreviation”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 3.
Further reading Edit
- Abbreviation in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
- “abbreviation”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
- “abbreviation”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- "abbreviation" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.