abbreviation
/əˌbɹiː.viˈeɪ.ʃən/US/əˌbɹi.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/
abbreviation noun: the result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
Noun
abbreviation (countable and uncountable, plural abbreviations)
- 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 +, =, @.
- Hants is an abbreviation of Hampshire.
- Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian
- 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.
- The phrase "civil rights" is an abbreviation for a whole complex of relationships.1946-1947, Harry S. Truman, President Truman's committee on Civil Rights
- Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
- Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.
abbreviation meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
abbreviation in Hindi
- shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase
- संक्षिप्तीकरण saṅkṣiptīkraṇ
abbreviation in Tamil
- abridged version of a document
- சுருக்கம் curukkam
- act or result of shortening or reducing
- சுருக்கம் curukkam
- shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase
- சுருக்கம் curukkam
abbreviation in Urdu
- shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase
- مُخَفَّف muxaffaf
abbreviation in Bengali
- abbreviation
- সংক্ষেপ śoṅkhep
- abbreviation, contraction
- হ্রস্বীকরণ hrosshikôron
More languagesFewer languages
- abbreviation in Telugu
- సంక్షేపం saṅkṣēpaṁ
- abbreviation in Malayalam
- സംഗ്രഹിക്കൽ, ചുരുക്കം, ചുരുക്കെഴുത്ത്
- abbreviation in Kannada
- ಸಂಕ್ಷೇಪ, ಸಂಕ್ಷಿಪ್ತ, ಚಿಕ್ಕದು ಮಾಡುವುದು, ಕಿರಿದುಗೊಳಿಸುವುದು
- abbreviation in Odia
- ସଂକ୍ଷେପଣ
- abbreviation in Tagalog
- pagdadaglat
- abbreviation in Arabic
- اِخْتِصَار iḵtiṣār
- abbreviation in Malay
- penyingkatan, singkatan
- abbreviation in Indonesian
- penyingkatan, abreviasi, singkatan
- abbreviation in Thai
- ตัวย่อ dtuua-yɔ̂ɔ, คำย่อ kam-yɔ̂ɔ, อักษรย่อ àk-sɔ̌ɔn-yɔ̂ɔ
- abbreviation in Vietnamese
- bài tóm tắt, sự tóm tắt, sự rút ngắn, viết tắt
- Kashmiri
- ژھۆٹرَن ċhoṭran
Examples of abbreviation in a sentence
- WFK White River - abbreviation for "West Fork of White River"
- The conversation was in the argot of the trade, full of acronyms and abbreviations that made no sense to the uninitiate.
- The abbreviation CIA stands for "Central Intelligence Agency".
Synonyms of abbreviation
- abbreviature
- abridgement
- abstract
- compend
- compression
- condensation
- contraction
- curtailment
- epitome
- reduction
Antonyms
Forms of abbreviation
| plural | abbreviations |
|---|---|
| alternative form | abbr. |
| alternative form | abbrv. |
| alternative form | abbrev. |
Origin of abbreviation
First attested 1400–50. From Middle English abbreviacioun, from Middle French abreviation, from Ecclesiastical Latin abbreviātiō, from Latin ad + breviō (“shorten”), from brevis (“short”). By surface analysis, abbreviate + -ion.
Words formed from abbreviation
Words that rhyme with abbreviation
- station
- collation
- accommodation
- presentation
- derivation
- information
- modulation
- translation
- application
- fixation
- generation
- orientation
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- citation
- combination
- communication
- conjugation
- constellation
- determination
- elevation
- operation
- relation
- reservation
- alternation
- condensation
- conversation
- deviation
- excavation
- foliation
- formation
- foundation
- incarnation
- interpretation
- representation
- retardation
- speculation
- termination
- adaptation
- articulation
- bifurcation
- concentration
- congregation
- declination
- degradation
- expectation
- extenuation
- gradation
- observation
- population
- preparation
- reconciliation
- rotation
- separation
- situation
- vexation
- vindication
- accumulation
- administration
- aggregation
- appropriation
- attenuation
Questions about abbreviation
- What does abbreviation mean?
- Abbreviation means the result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
- What is abbreviation in Hindi?
- Abbreviation in Hindi is संक्षिप्तीकरण (saṅkṣiptīkraṇ). See Abbreviation meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is abbreviation?
- Abbreviation is a noun.
- How do you pronounce abbreviation?
- Abbreviation is pronounced /əˌbɹiː.viˈeɪ.ʃən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of abbreviation?
- The plural of abbreviation is abbreviations.
Words near abbreviation in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abbreviation (page history and authors); সংক্ষেপ (Bengali) (page history and authors); abbreviation (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abbreviation (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abbreviation (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-abbreviation.wav.
Cite this entry: “abbreviation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abbreviation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.