Abbreviation

Pronunciation

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

Alternative forms

• abbr., abbrv., abbrev.

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

1. 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 16^th century.
2. The process of abbreviating. Mid 16^th 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.