contraction
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /kɒnˈtɹæk.ʃən/, /kənˈtɹæk.ʃən/
  • (America) IPA: /kənˈtɹæk.ʃən/
Noun

contraction

  1. A reversible reduction in size.
  2. (economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.
    The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
  3. (biology) A shortening of a muscle when it is used.
  4. (medicine) A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
  5. (linguistics) A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are lost or reduced, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.
    In English didn't, that's, and wanna, the endings -n't, -'s, and -a arose by contraction.
  6. (English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.
    "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."
  7. A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
  8. (medicine) The process of contracting a disease.
    the contraction of malaria
  9. (phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
  10. The acquisition of something, generally negative.
    Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
  11. (medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.
Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary