Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make shorter. See Synonyms at shorten.
- v. To reduce (a word or phrase) to a shorter form intended to represent the full form.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make briefer; abridge; make shorter by contraction or omission of a part: as, to abbreviate a writing or a word.
- In mathematics, to reduce to the lowest terms, as fractions. Synonyms To shorten, curtail, abridge, epitomize, reduce, compress, condense, cut down.
- To practise or use abbreviation.
- Abbreviated.
- n. An abridgment; an abstract.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken.
- v. (Math.) To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.
- adj. rare Abbreviated; abridged; shortened.
- adj. (Biol.) Having one part relatively shorter than another or than the ordinary type.
- n. obsolete An abridgment.
WordNet 3.0
- v. shorten.
- v. reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
Etymologies
- Middle English abbreviaten, from Late Latin abbreviāre, abbreviāt- : ad-, ad- + breviāre, to shorten (from brevis, short). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“She talked about money, and her points (which I again abbreviate) are:”
“To abbreviate or not to abbreviate, that is the important style question”
“Desplechin reminded his audience that excellent dialogue was often written for silent movies even though you never hear it and the intertitles abbreviate the script.”
“· Added "abbreviate" for the month element in the _xml_ format skins.”
“For a few years, SAT would abbreviate a hypothetically less offensive but indisputably more awkward name for the examination: Scholastic Assessment Test.”
“As stated in the Xbox Live Terms of Use, a member may not create a gamertag or use text in other profile fields that include comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate content of a potentially sexual nature.”
Microsoft's Policy Regarding Identifying Sexual Orientation On XBOX Live - The Consumerist
“Along the way you will learn to play the melody and abbreviate the rest of the accompaniment.”
“I use the first letter and the last two to abbreviate this and we can simply call you WET.”
“The apostrophe is used when you abbreviate the decade as the '90s (the apostrophe indicates the missing numerals).”
“Of course some of that depends on Favre, 39, and whether he intends to abbreviate his second retirement in as many years and come back to play after spending 2008 with the New York Jets.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘abbreviate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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A to abominator (Chambers)
aa gets over 40 hits
aardvark 49 hits
abbatoir 103 hits
abjure 138 hitsA, A 1, aa, A-line, A-list, A-lister, A-road, A-side, from A to B, from A to Z, A-bomb, A-effect and 254 more...
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My GRE Vocab
moniker, sobriquet, prerogative, aberration, aberrant, nuance, notorious, infamous, content, refer, allude, renown and 109 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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ShuckFinn's Words
abecedarian, conflate, mondegreen, whit, truculent, downright, pugnacious, effluvium, canker, inveigle, obfuscate, melancholy and 227 more...
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Shorten
Verbs meaning shorten
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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GRE
Taisha GRE Bible
archaic, archetype, archipelago, architect, archive, arctic, ardor, arduous, argot, arid, armory, arrest and 289 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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GRE
trope, surreptitious, tenet, insular, munificent, exegesis, limpid, acerbic, litany, cupidity, restive, protract and 76 more...
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word list
abandon, ache, augment, avow, atone, approbate, apprehend, abut, apostatize, abase, abash, abate and 155 more...
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list1
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, ablution and 106 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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To Dock (tail, horns, scrotum, hair)
Verbs meaning dock.
decurt, decurtate, tonse, decaudate, decaudalize, curtail, abridge, abbreviate
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for abbreviate.
tbtabby Why is this word so long? Oct 9, 2008
uselessness Don't abbrev. Jan 25, 2007