ab ‧ bre ‧ vi ‧ ate /əˈbriːvieɪt/ BrE AmE verb [transitive]
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Late Latin ; Origin: past participle of abbreviare , from Latin brevis 'short' ]
to make a word or expression shorter by not including letters or using only the first letter of each word SYN shorten
be abbreviated to something
‘Information technology’ is usually abbreviated to ‘IT’.