abbreviation

Use in a sentence

ab·bre·vi·a·tion

[uh-bree-vee-ey-shuhn]
noun
1.
a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole, as Dr. for Doctor, U.S. for United States, lb. for pound.
2.
an act of abbreviating; state or result of being abbreviated; reduction in length, duration, etc.; abridgment; summary: His abbreviation of his famous monograph, an enormous endeavor in itself, made an excellent introduction to the volume of collected essays of which he was the editor.
3.
a short phrase or reduced form used to represent a larger, more complex idea, situation, set of beliefs, etc.: “Freedom of speech” has become an abbreviation for a wealth of debate—and case law—about protesters' rights. The artist presented an abbreviation of line, plane, and curve; she creates breathtaking abstract representations of bodies you expect to leap off the canvas and start dancing.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English abbreviacioun (< Middle French) < Late Latin abbreviātiōn- (stem of abbreviātiō). See abbreviate, -ion

abbreviation, acronym, initialism.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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00:10
Abbreviation is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
abbreviation (əˌbriːvɪˈeɪʃən) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase used in place of the whole
2.  the process or result of abbreviating

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

abbreviation
mid-15c., from M.Fr. abréviation, from L.L. abbreviationem (nom. abbreviatio), from pp. of abbreviare "make brief," from L. ad "to" + breviare "shorten," from brevis "short, low, little, shallow" (see brief (adj.)).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

abbreviation definition


A shortened form of an expression, usually followed by a period. Dr. is a standard abbreviation for Doctor; MA is a standard abbreviation for Massachusetts.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
My signature is my first initial, followed by an abbreviation of my last name.
Its name is an abbreviation for a vulgar expression used by convicts and bikers.
But an abbreviation has to be catchy to be successful.
Explain that this is a special kind of abbreviation called an acronym.
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