abbreviate

verb ab·bre·vi·ate \ ə-ˈbrē-vē-ˌāt \

Updated on: 20 Nov 2017

Definition of abbreviate

abbreviated; abbreviating

transitive verb

: to make briefer

an abbreviated session

an abbreviated version of the story

; especially : to reduce (a word or name) to a shorter form intended to stand for the whole

You can abbreviate the word building as bldg.

"United States of America" is commonly abbreviated to "USA."

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abbreviator

play \-ˌā-tər\ noun

See abbreviate defined for English-language learners

See abbreviate defined for kids

abbreviate was our Word of the Day on 11/30/2014. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of abbreviate from the Web

The brand also recently released a capsule collection that includes yoga mats and high-fashion merch, like baseball caps, which abbreviate Valentino to

— emilia petrarca, The Cut, "Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli on ‘Glamleisure’ and Being Named Designer of the Year," 20 Oct. 2017
Tall, gregarious, often besuited with a trim beard, Tubbs could become the new face of universal basic income, or as people abbreviate it, UBI.

— alexis c. madrigal, The Atlantic, "Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom," 19 Oct. 2017
Roberts rarely carries the ball himself and has accumulated impressive, yet abbreviated, passing statistics: 23 completions in 38 attempts for 703 yards and eight touchdowns.

— jeff savage, sandiegouniontribune.com, "From the Archives: Dave Roberts 1989 interview," 13 Oct. 2017
Read on for our (abbreviated) list of FedNut's favorite American donut shops.

— bridget hallinan, CNT, "Where to Get the Best Donuts in the U.S., According to Federal Donuts Founders," 26 Sep. 2017
The normal planning that goes into such a mission was abbreviated.

— jim michaels, USA TODAY, "Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl searchers describe harrowing firefight, serious wounds," 26 Oct. 2017
The first rows compares the correlations between a team's full season winning percentage over 162 games (give or take one due to tiebreakers and rainouts), abbreviated as Full%, and its postseason winning percentage (PS%).

— jay jaffe, SI.com, "Do September Streaks Correlate to Playoff Success or Failure? Don't Fall for Recency Bias," 14 Sep. 2017
Walt Disney World also decided to abbreviate its Christian-music festival.

— dewayne bevil, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Hurricane Irma: Universal calls off second night of Rock the Universe," 7 Sep. 2017
The brand also recently released a capsule collection that includes yoga mats and high-fashion merch, like baseball caps, which abbreviate Valentino to #VLTN.

— emilia petrarca, The Cut, "Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli on ‘Glamleisure’ and Being Named Designer of the Year," 20 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abbreviate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Abbreviate and abridge both mean "to make shorter," so it probably will come as no surprise that both derive from the Latin verb brevis, meaning "short." Abbreviate first appeared in print in English in the 15th century and derives from abbreviatus, the past participle of Late Latin abbreviare, which in turn can be traced back to brevis. Abridge, which appeared a century earlier, also comes from abbreviare but took a side trip through Anglo-French before arriving in Middle English as abregen. Brevis is also the ancestor of English brief itself, as well as brevity and breviary ("a prayer book" or "a brief summary"), among others.