Meaning of contraction in English | Powered by Free Dictionary API

noun

• A reversible reduction in size.

• A period of economic decline or negative growth.

  Example: The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.

• A shortening of a muscle when it is used.

• A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.

• 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.

  Example: In English didn't, that's, and wanna, the endings -n't, -'s, and -a arose by contraction.

• (English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.

  Example: "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."

• A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.

• The process of contracting a disease.

  Example: the contraction of malaria

• Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.

• The acquisition of something, generally negative.

  Example: Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.

• A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.