abbreviation

Meanings

Plural: abbreviations

Noun

• a shortened form of a word or phrase
• shortening something by omitting parts of it
• The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
• A shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase used to represent the whole, using omission of letters, and sometimes substitution of letters, or duplication of initial letters to signify plurality, including signs such as +, =, @.
• The process of abbreviating.
• A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
• 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.
• Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
• Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.

Synonyms

abbreviature, abridgement, abstract, compend, compression, condensation, contraction, curtailment, epitome, reduction, shortcut, summary

Antonyms

amplification, dilation, enlargement, expansion, expatiation, extension, production