̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ˈāshən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English abreviacioun, from Middle French abbreviation, from Late Latin abbreviation-, abbreviatio, from abbreviatus + Latin -ion-, -io -ion
1. : the act or result of abbreviating : reduction in length or content : abridgment
our law, which shrinks from any abbreviation of the span of life — B.N.Cardozo
abbreviation , leading to the omission of essential explanation — Economist
2.
a. : a shortened form of a written word or phrase used for brevity in place of the whole made commonly by omission of letters from one or more parts of the whole (as abbr for abbreviation, amt for amount, bldg for building, doz or dz for dozen, recd for received, H.E. for His Eminence and His Excellency, N. Y. for New York, r.p.m. or RPM for revolutions per minute ) sometimes showing substitution or other alteration in the part or parts retained (as bbl for barrel, cwt for hundredweight, oz for ounce, Xmas for Christmas ) and sometimes doubling of initial letters to show plural form (as ff for folios, pp for pages, SS for Saints ) — often extended to include signs and symbols (as ÷ for divided by, & for and, $ for dollar ); compare contraction , sign , symbol
b. : a shortened form of a spoken word or phrase (as Smiffle for Smithfield, auto for automobile )
3.
a. : a device used in a music score as a direction (as pp., con 8 va )
b. : a symbol used to shorten music notation by representing repeated notes or groups of notes
4. : any convenient spoken or written short form or simple substitute for an understood or stipulated whole
the phrase “civil rights” is an abbreviation for a whole complex of relationships — Pres. Truman's Committee on Civil Rights
5. : loss in the course of evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern — compare acceleration , fetalization