abbreviate.
To shorten by omitting parts or details.
Meaning & usage
To shorten by omitting parts or details.
To speak or write in a brief manner.
To make shorter; to shorten (in time); to abridge; to shorten by ending sooner than planned.
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.
To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.
Where this word comes from
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.
Abbreviated.
Abbreviated, abridged, shortened.
Having one part relatively shorter than another or than the ordinary type.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English abbreviat(e) (“abbreviated”, used as the past participle of abbreviaten); the noun is derived by subtsantivization from the adjective. See -ate (adjective forming suffix), -ate (noun forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
An abridgment.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English abbreviat(e) (“abbreviated”, used as the past participle of abbreviaten); the noun is derived by subtsantivization from the adjective. See -ate (adjective forming suffix), -ate (noun forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.