contraction
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kənˈtɹækʃn̩/
ipa: /kɒn-/
ipa: /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/
note: Indic
ipa: /kəɳˈʈrakʃən/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈkɔɳʈrakʃən/
rhymes: -ækʃən
Forms: form: contractions
Etymology: PIE word
 *ḱóm
From Late Middle English contraccioun, contraxion (“spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together”), from Old French contraction (modern French contraction), from Latin contractiō(n) (“a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency”), from contrahō (“to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract”) + -tiō(n) (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results). Contrahō is derived from con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) + trahō (“to drag, pull”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”)). By surface analysis, contract + -ion (suffix denoting actions or processes, or their results).
Senses: examples: text: Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
glosses: Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.
An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative).
glosses: Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.
An act of entering into a contract or agreement; specifically, a contract of marriage; a contracting; also (obsolete), a betrothal.
examples: text: the contraction of malaria
text: Railway workers were therefore a perfect subject for research, given the varied roles they undertook. If infection was greatest among the non-public-facing staff, it would suggest – given most worked outside – that contraction was caused by something found in the "atmosphere at large". If affliction was higher among the indoor and public-facing staff, it would suggest that human contact was the cause. And it was the latter point that was proven.
ref: 2020 April 8, David Turner, “How Railway Staff were Conduits and Victims of a Pandemic”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 32:
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
sciences
glosses: Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.
The process of contracting or becoming infected with a disease.
synonyms: acquiring
catching
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
An abridgement or shortening of writing, etc.; an abstract, a summary; also (uncountable), brevity, conciseness.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
synonyms: condensation
epitome
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
sciences
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
A stage of wound healing during which the wound edges are gradually pulled together.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
examples: text: Though occasionally a “flatliner” can be revived with a defib, it is most commonly used to change the uncoordinated contractions of the heart (fibrillation) into a normal sinus rhythm—that is, to defibrillate the heart.
ref: 2011, Laurence Street, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology, page 125:
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
sciences
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
A shortening of a muscle during its use; specifically, a strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
examples: text: The country’s economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
topics: economics
sciences
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
A period of economic decline or negative growth.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
examples: text: In the English words didn’t, that’s, and wanna, the endings -n’t, -’s, and -a arose by contraction.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are reduced or lost, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
hyponyms: apheresis
apocope
elision
syncope
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonology
prosody
sciences
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
Synonym of syncope (“the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable”).
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
synonyms: word: syncope
extra: the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
The preimage of the given ideal under the given homomorphism.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
qualifier: ring theory
raw_tags: of an ideal in the codomain of a ring homomorphism
examples: text: Don’t is a contraction of do not; and ’til is a contraction of until.
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
orthography
publishing
writing
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
In the English language: a shortened form of a word, often with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe or a diacritical mark.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.
A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
antonyms: dilatation
dilation
expansion
glosses: Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
An act of collecting or gathering.
Derived terms: aftercontraction
anticontraction
Braxton Hicks contraction
cocontraction
contractional
contractionary
contractionism
contractionist
contractionless
decontraction
eccentric contraction
edge contraction
haustral contraction
hypercontraction
intercontraction
lanthanide contraction
length contraction
Lorentz contraction
Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction
mutated contraction
noncontraction
overcontraction
precontraction
recontraction
supercontraction
vasocontraction
wanna contraction
Related terms: word: contract
word: contractable
word: contractant
word: contractation
word: contracted
word: contractedly
word: contractedness
word: contractee
word: contractible
word: contractile
word: contractility
word: contracting
word: contractive
word: contractly
word: contractor
word: contractual
word: contractually
word: contractural
word: contracture
word: contractured
word: extract
word: retract
word: tractile
word: traction
word: omission