Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Abbreviation

Ab-breˊvi-a′tion

,
Noun.
[LL.
abbreviatio
: cf. F.
abbréviation
.]
1.
The act of shortening, or reducing.
2.
The result of abbreviating; an abridgment.
Tylor.
3.
The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.
4.
(Mus.)
One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers.
Moore.

Webster 1828 Edition

Abbreviation

ABBREVIA'TION

,
Noun.
1.
The act of shortening or contracting.
2.
A letter or a few letters used for a word; as Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.
3.
The reduction of fractions to the lowest terms.

Definition 2024

Abbreviation

Abbreviation

See also: abbreviation

German

Noun

Abbreviation f ‎(genitive Abbreviation, plural Abbreviationen)

  1. abbreviation

abbreviation

abbreviation

See also: Abbreviation
For abbreviations in Wiktionary, see Category:Abbreviations by language

English

Alternative forms

Noun

abbreviation ‎(plural abbreviations)

  1. The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
  2. (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]
  3. The process of abbreviating. [Mid 16th century.][1]
  4. (music) A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or ****.
  5. (music) One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.
  6. 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
  7. (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
  8. (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 3
  • “abbreviation” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
  • “abbreviation” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
  • "abbreviation" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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