abbreviation
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.5|Example of 15th-century Latin manuscript text with [[scribal abbreviations]]
AI overview
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase used in writing, such as "Dr." for "Doctor" or "etc." for "et cetera." Abbreviations matter because they save time and space when writing, a practice that has been used for centuries, including in medieval manuscripts where scribes developed their own shorthand systems.
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Article
22 sectionsContents
- Types
- History
- Style conventions in English
- Capitalization
- Full Stops (Periods)
- Plural
- Conventions followed by publications and newspapers
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Miscellaneous and general rules
- Measurements: abbreviations or symbols
- Syllabic abbreviation
- English
- Albanian
- German
- Russian
- Spanish
- Malay and Indonesian
- Chinese and Japanese kanji
- See also
- Notes
- References
thumb|upright=1.5|Example of 15th-century Latin manuscript text with [[scribal abbreviations]]
An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing full stop (period). For example, the term etc. is the usual abbreviation for the Latin phrase .