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abbreviation definition

ab·bre·via·tion (ə brē′vē ā′s̸hən)

noun

  1. a making shorter
  2. the fact or state of being made shorter
  3. a shortened form of a word or phrase, as N.Y. for New York, Mr. for Mister, lb for pound, ctn for cotangent

Etymology: ME < MFr abréviation < LL abbreviatio: see abbreviate

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alternate definitions:

telecom abbreviation definition - telecom

abbreviation Synonyms

abbreviation

n.

  1. An abbreviated form

    acronym, initialism, contraction, abridgment, shortening, sketch, précis, brief, abstract, curtailment, reduction, abstraction, condensation, outline, summary, elision, short form, clipped form, clipping, abbreviated version; see also abridgment 2, summary.

    Antonyms expansion, enlargement, full form.

  2. The act of abbreviating

    reducing, shortening, truncating, reduction, contraction, condensing, abridgment, cutting, clipping, cutting out, cutting down, restriction, constriction, removing, taking out, truncation, editing, censoring, reshaping, pruning, lopping off, paring down, trimming, retrenchment, compression, foreshortening, telescoping, apocope, syncope, elision.

    Antonyms addition*, augmenting, expanding.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

abbreviation Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • phrase: The name Sudoku is the Japanese abbreviation of a longer phrase, meaning " the digits must remain single " .

Converse of object

  • expand: Best advice is to use consistently and to always expand the abbreviation somewhere in the main body of the text.

Preposition: in

  • parenthesis: In text mode, the definition is given, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.

Adjective modifier

  • unambiguous: Some parameters offer a selection from a menu to which you give an unambiguous abbreviation to select an option.

Noun used with modifier

  • three-letter: The three-letter abbreviation for a table is separated from rest of the abbreviation for the attribute name with a period.
abbreviation usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

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MLA Style

"abbreviation." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 3 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/abbreviation>

APA Style

abbreviation. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 3rd, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/abbreviation

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