Abbreviation

1. (n.) The act of shortening, or reducing.
2. (n.) The result of abbreviating; an abridgment.
3. (n.) 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. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.
4. (n.) One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers.