Definitions
1.nounThe result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
2.nounA 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.nounThe process of abbreviating.
4.nounA notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
5.nounOne or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.
6.nounAny convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.
7.nounLoss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
8.nounReduction to lower terms, as a fraction.