1. (n.) The act of shortening, or reducing.

2. (n.) The result of abbreviating; an abridgment.

3. (n.) The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.

4. (n.) One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers.

abbreviature abrege abridgment abstract apocope aposiopesis astriction astringency blue-penciling bottleneck bowdlerization brief cancellation capsule censoring censorship cervix circumscription clipping coarctation compactedness compaction compend compression compressure concentration condensation condensed version consolidation conspectus constriction constringency contraction contracture crasis curtailment cutting decrease deletion digest diminuendo draft editing elision ellipsis epitome erasure expurgation foreshortening head hourglass hourglass figure isthmus knitting narrow place narrowing neck omission outline overview pandect precis pruning puckering pursing recap recapitulation reduction retrenchment review rubric shortened version shortening skeleton sketch solidification stranglement strangulation striction stricture striking summary summation survey syllabus syncope syneresis synopsis systole telescoping thumbnail sketch topical outline truncation wasp waist wrinkling