contraction
(noun) the act of decreasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope
contraction, muscular contraction, muscle contraction
(noun) (physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber)
contraction
(noun) a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds; “‘won’t’ is a contraction of ‘will not’”; “‘o’clock’ is a contraction of ‘of the clock’”
compression, condensation, contraction
(noun) the process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together; “the contraction of a gas on cooling”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
contraction (countable and uncountable, plural contractions)
A reversible reduction in size.
(economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.
(biology) A shortening of a muscle when it is used.
(medicine) A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
(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.
(English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.
A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
(medicine) The process of contracting a disease.
(phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
The acquisition of something, generally negative.
(medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.
• expansion
• dilatation
Source: Wiktionary
Con*trac"tion, n. Etym: [L. contractio: cf. F. contraction.]
1. The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold.
2. (Math.)
Definition: The process of shortening an operation.
3. The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease.
4. Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; -- as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.
5. (Gram.)
Definition: The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is.
6. A marriage contract. [Obs.] Shak.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
26 November 2024
(noun) (music) playing in a different key from the key intended; moving the pitch of a piece of music upwards or downwards
According to Guinness World Records, on 25 September 2016, the Birla Institute of Management Technology (India) in Uttar Pradesh, India, constructed the largest coffee cups pyramid consisting of 23,821 cups. They used paper takeaway coffee cups to build the pyramid.
