abbreviation

noun

1. 1

   The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.

2. 2

   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 +, =, @.

3. 3

   The process of abbreviating.

4. 4

   A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.

5. 5

   One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.

6. 6

   Any convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.

7. 7

   Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.

8. 8

   Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.