A shortened form of a word or phrase used for brevity in place of the whole, consisting of the first letter, or the first few letters, followed by a period (full stop), for example, assoc for association or P O for post office Some terms have more than one abbreviation (v or vol for volume) Abbreviated abbr Also used as an umbrella term for any shortened form of a word or phrase, not an acronym, initialism, or contraction, for example, the postal code CT for Connecticut The rules governing the use of abbreviations in library catalog entries are given in Appendix B of AACR2
a shortened form of a word or words, either the use of initials instead of a whole word, for example: TTA (Teacher Training Agency) or the first few letters, for example: approx for approximately
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
An abbreviation is a short form of a word or phrase, made by leaving out some of the letters or by using only the first letter of each word. The postal abbreviation for Kansas is KS. Shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole. Abbreviations began to proliferate in the 19th century and have been prevalent since; they are employed to reduce the time required for writing or speaking, especially when referring to the myriad new organizations, bureaucratic entities, and technological products typical of industrial societies. An abbreviation can now easily become a word, either as an initialism in which the letters are pronounced individually (e.g., TV or FBI) or as an acronym in which the letters are combined into syllables (e.g., scuba, laser, or NAFTA)