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 +, =, @.
The process of abbreviating.
Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.
Any convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.
Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.
The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
Elision, suppression, or complete loss of a letter or sound (syllable) from the beginning of a word, such as the development of special from especial; procope.
The removal of blood from a patient, and the removal of certain components (such as platelets) from that blood, followed by the transfusion of the filtered blood back to the donor (patient).