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Definition of Contraction
Con`trac´tion | n. | 1. | The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendon; the contraction produced by cold. | | 2. | (Math.) The process of shortening an operation. | | 3. | The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease. | | 4. | Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; - as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc. | | 5. | (Gram.) The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is. | | 6. | A marriage contract. |
Related Words
Speedwriting, abatement, abbreviation, abridgment, alleviation, apocope, aposiopesis, attenuation, brachygraphy, clipping, coarctation, constriction, crasis, cutting, dampening, damping, decrease, decrement, decrescence, deduction, deflation, depreciation, depression, diminishment, diminution, dying, dying off, elision, ellipsis, extenuation, fade-out, languishment, lessening, letup, lowering, miniaturization, mitigation, narrowing, phonography, pruning, relaxation, sagging, scaling down, shortening, shorthand, simplicity, stenography, stricture, subtraction, syncope, syneresis, tachygraphy, taper, tapering, truncation, weakening
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