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Abbreviation vs Initials - What's the difference?

abbreviation | initials |

As nouns the difference between abbreviation and initials

is that abbreviation is the result of shortening or reducing; abridgment while initials is .

abbreviation

Alternative forms

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Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.
  • the phrase "civil rights" is an abbreviation for a whole complex of relationships. - Pres. Truman's comittee on Civil Rights
  • (biology) Loss during evolution of the final stages of the ancestral ontogenetic pattern.
  • (mathematics) Reduction to lower terms, as a fraction.
  • See also

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    References

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    initials

    English

    Noun

    (head)
  • English plurals
  • (plurale tantum) An abbreviation of a person's name, constructed by taking the initial letters of first, last, and sometimes middle name. See monogram