noun🔗ShareThe result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.""Mr. Smith always uses the abbreviation 'etc.' instead of writing out 'et cetera'." "languagecommunicationwritingwordChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareA 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 +, =, @."The abbreviation "Mr." is used before a man's surname. "grammarlanguagecommunicationwritingwordsignlinguisticsChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareThe process of abbreviating."The abbreviation of "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" is "NASA". "languagegrammarwordChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareA notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf."The music score showed an abbreviation for "piano," using "pp" to indicate a very soft volume. "musicsignChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareOne or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers."The music teacher explained that the abbreviation on the sheet music indicated the notes should be played as very fast, short eighth notes. "musicChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareAny convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.""Using 'Dr.' is a common abbreviation for 'Doctor'." "languagewritingcommunicationwordgrammarChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareLoss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern."The abbreviation of tadpole development in some frog species, where they hatch as miniature frogs without going through a complete aquatic larval stage, allows them to thrive in drier environments. "biologyorganismChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading
noun🔗ShareReduction to lower terms, as a fraction."The abbreviation of the fraction 4/8 is 1/2. "mathChat with AIVocabulary GamePractice Reading