You searched for: “abbreviation”
abbreviation (uh bree" vee AY shuhn) (s) (noun), abbreviations (pl)
1. "Mr." is the abbreviation (shortened form) of "Mister".
2. Every Reader's Digest condensed book is an abbreviation of an originally longer work: "Some abbreviation of the speech was necessary because he didn't have enough time to deliver all of it."

U.S.A., FBI, Calif., and Dr. are abbreviations, shortened forms of a word or phrase to represent the full term.

NATO, NASA, and UNICEF are a type of abbreviation called acronyms, abbreviations that may be pronounced as a word rather than just as a series of letters.

So, an abbreviation is pronounced as separate letters (U.S.A., FBI) while an acronym may be pronounced as a word (NATO, NASA).

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group A + (page 1)
Word Entries at Word Info: “abbreviation”
abbreviation (s) (noun), abbreviations (pl)
1. The result of reducing something; such as, a form or a short summary: "There are many abbreviations for title words; one common abbreviation is Mr. for Mister."
2. A shortened form of a spoken word, or written symbol; a part of a word or symbol standing for the whole: "A very familiar abbreviation is etc.; the abbreviation for et cetera; meaning, 'and the rest', 'and others', 'and so forth' which is used at the end of a list to indicate that 'other items of the same class or type should be considered or included'."
This entry is located in the following units: a-, ab-, abs- (page 3) -ation, -ization (-iz[e] + -ation); -isation (British spelling variation) (page 1) brevi-, brev- [brie-, bri-] + (page 1)