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abbreviate

verb
/əˈbɹiː.vi.eɪt/UK/əˈbɹi.vi.eɪt/US/əˈbɹi.vi.ət/US/əˈbriviet/

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.

  1. derived from abbreviātus
  2. inherited from abbreviaten

Definitions

  1. To shorten by omitting parts or details.

    • But it is one Thing, to Abbreuiate by Contracting, Another by Cutting off: […]

  2. To speak or write in a brief manner.

  3. To make shorter

    To make shorter; to shorten (in time); to abridge; to shorten by ending sooner than planned.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. To reduce a word or phrase by means of contraction or omission to a shorter recognizable…

      To reduce a word or phrase by means of contraction or omission to a shorter recognizable form.

      • Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is more commonly known by its abbreviated form BSE.
      • Alana abbreviated "involuntarily celibate" to "invcel", until someone suggested that "incel" was easier to say.

    2. To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.

    3. Abbreviated.

    4. Abbreviated, abridged, shortened.

    5. Having one part relatively shorter than another or than the ordinary type.

    6. An abridgment.

The neighborhood

Derived

abbreviatable, abbreviately, abbreviater, abbreviative, abbreviatory, deabbreviate, unabbreviatable, unabbreviate

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at abbreviate. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01abbreviate02abridge03cut04incision05cutting06abridged07shortened08shorten

A definitional loop anchored at abbreviate. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at abbreviate

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA