- The definition of an abbreviation is a shortened form of something.
An example of an abbreviation is PA, which is a shortened form of Pennsylvania.
abbreviation
noun
- a making shorter
- the fact or state of being made shorter
- a shortened form of a word or phrase, as N.Y. for New York, Mr. for Mister, lb for pound, ctn for cotangent
Origin of abbreviation
Middle English ; from Middle French abréviation ; from Late Latin abbreviatio: see abbreviateabbreviation
noun
- The act or product of shortening.
- A shortened form of a word or phrase used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form, such as Mass. for Massachusetts or USMC for United States Marine Corps.
abbreviation
Noun
(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 substitutuion for an understood or inferred whole.
- (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
- (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.
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”).
abbreviation - Computer Definition
A shortened form of a word or phrase. P-phone, for example, is an abbreviation of Proprietary phone. Acronyms, contractions, and initialisms are special forms of abbreviations comprising the initial letters or other parts of several words that constitute a term. See also acronym, contraction, and initialism.
