abbreviation

IPA: ʌbriviˈeɪʃʌn

The result of shortening or reducing; abridgment.
(linguistics) A shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole, utilizing omission of letters, and sometimes substitution of letters, or duplication of initial letters to signify plurality, including signs such as +, =, @.
The process of abbreviating.
(music) A notation used in music score to denote a direction, as pp or mf.
(music) One or more dashes through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers, or hemidemisemiquavers.
Any convenient short form used as a substitution for an understood or inferred whole.
(biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
(mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.

Examples of "abbreviation" in Sentences

In case you didn't know, that abbreviation is for 'Release Candidate'.
An abbreviation is something like ‘etc.’, which is marked, if at all, with a full stop.
The airport abbreviation is MEX, and the official name is the Benito Juarez International Airport.
So it goes with abbreviations; if you want to be literal, an abbreviation is an abbreviated form of something.
In the New York Times, the preferred abbreviation is number-apostrophe-s (e.g., 90's), while in many other publications the preferred abbrevation is apostrophe-number-s (e.g., '90s).
Fiat and Alfa separately designed two analogous models, named in military terms AR 51 (the abbreviation is short for 'Autoveicoli da Ricognizione' and the number a reference to its year of introduction of 1951) both with 1900 cm3 engines.