Abbreviation
Pronunciation
- RP IPA: /əˌbriË.viˈeɪ.ʃən/
- GenAm IPA: /əˌbri.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Origin
First attested 1400–50. From Middle English abbreviacioun, from Middle French abréviation, from Late Latin abbreviÄtiÅ, from ab ("from") + abbreviÅ ("make brief"), from Latin ad + breviÅ ("shorten"), from brevis ("short").
Full definition of abbreviation
Noun
abbreviation
(plural abbreviations)- The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment. First attested around 1350 to 1470.
- (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.
- The process of abbreviating. Mid 16th century.
- (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.
- the phrase "civil rights" is an abbreviation for a whole complex of relationships. - Pres. Truman's comittee on Civil Rights
- (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
- (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.