abbreviate
verb
Did you know?
Abbreviate and abridge both mean "to make shorter," so it probably will come as no surprise that both derive from Latin brevis, meaning "short." Abbreviate first appeared in print in English in the 15th century and derives from abbreviātus, the past participle of Late Latin abbreviāre, which in turn can be traced back to brevis. Abridge, which appeared a century earlier, also comes from abbreviāre but took a side trip through the Anglo-French abreger before arriving in Middle English as abreggen. Brevis is also the ancestor of English brief itself, as well as brevity and breviary ("a prayer book" or "a brief summary"), among other words.
Examples of abbreviate in a Sentence
Jesse Newell, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2025
That’s a tactic city financers used on several other bond projects as well, said Molly Scarbrough, a deputy program manager for the Denver GO Bond Program, which abbreviates general obligation bond.
—Elliott Wenzler, Denver Post, 28 Sep. 2025
The rest of the quintet — vocalist Dexter Holland, bassist Todd Morse, multi-instrumentalist Jonah Nimoy and drummer Brandon Pertzborn — then joined in for a rocking (yet, sadly, abbreviated) take on that same album’s legendary title track.
—Jim Harrington, Mercury News, 31 Aug. 2025
Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury, which is abbreviated as mm Hg.
—Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for abbreviate
Cite this Entry
“Abbreviate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abbreviate. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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abbreviate
verb
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