* abbr., abbrv., abbrev.

First attested 1400–50. From Middle English _abbreviacioun_, from Middle French _abreviation_, from Late Latin _abbreviātiō_, from _ab_ (“from”) + _abbreviō_ (“make brief”), from Latin _ad_ + _breviō_ (“shorten”), from _brevis_ (“short”).

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˌbriː.viˈeɪ.ʃən/ * (General American) IPA(key): /əˌbri.viˈeɪ.ʃn̩/ * Rhymes: -eɪʃən

ABBREVIATION (_plural_ ABBREVIATIONS) * The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.] * (linguistics) A shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole, utilizing omission of letters, and sometimes substitution of letters, or duplication of initial letters to signify plurality, including signs such as, +, =, @. [Late 16th century.] * The process of abbreviating. [Mid 16th century.] * (music) A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf. * (music) 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. - PRES. TRUMAN'S COMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS * (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern. * (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction. TRANSLATIONS

* acronym

* ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lesley Brown (editor), _The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 3 * “abbreviation” in _The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition_, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. * “abbreviation” in _Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1_, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006. * "abbreviation" in _WordNet 2.0_, Princeton University, 2003.