abbreviation

1. The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment. (countable, uncountable)
2. A shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase used to represent the whole, using omission of letters, and sometimes substitution of letters, or duplication of initial letters to signify plurality, including signs such as +, =, @. (countable, uncountable) · Hants is an abbreviation of Hampshire.· The symbol MB is an abbreviation of megabyte.
3. The process of abbreviating. (countable, uncountable)
4. A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf. (countable, uncountable)
5. One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers. (countable, uncountable)
6. Any convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole. (countable, uncountable)
7. Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern. (countable, uncountable)
8. Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction. (countable, uncountable)

Plural abbreviations