abbreviate
Pronunciation: /əˈbɹiː.vi.eɪt/
The English word “abbreviate” has 9 meanings listed here.
verb
- To shorten by omitting parts or details.
- To speak or write in a brief manner.
- To make shorter; to shorten (in time); to abridge; to shorten by ending sooner than planned.
- To reduce a word or phrase by means of contraction or omission to a shorter recognizable form.
- To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.
adjective
- Abbreviated.
- Abbreviated, abridged, shortened.
- Having one part relatively shorter than another or than the ordinary type.
noun
- An abridgment.
Etymology
From Middle English abbreviaten, from abbreviat(e) (“abbreviated”, used as the participle of abbreviaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin abbreviātus, perfect passive participle of abbreviō (“to shorten”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), formed from ab- + breviō (“to shorten”), from brevis (“short”). Alternatively, a back-formation from abbreviation. Doublet of abridge.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.