• Abbreviation

    Pronunciation

    • RP IPA: /əˌbriː.viˈeɪ.ʃən/
    • GenAm IPA: /əˌbri.viˈeɪ.ʃnÌ©/
    • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    First attested 1400–50. From Middle English abbreviacioun, from Middle French abréviation, from Late Latin abbreviātiō, from ab ("from") + abbreviō ("make brief"), from Latin ad + breviō ("shorten"), from brevis ("short").

    Full definition of abbreviation

    Noun

    abbreviation

    (plural abbreviations)
    1. The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment. First attested around 1350 to 1470.
    SOED5|page=3
    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.
    2. The process of abbreviating. Mid 16th century.
    3. (music) A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
    4. (music) One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.
    5. Any convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.
      • the phrase "civil rights" is an abbreviation for a whole complex of relationships. - Pres. Truman's comittee on Civil Rights
    6. (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
    7. (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.
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