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Contraction vs Auxotonic - What's the difference?

contraction | auxotonic |

As a noun contraction

is a reversible reduction in size.

As an adjective auxotonic is

(botany) relating to plant movement classified by growth as opposed to mature reactions to exogenous stimuli in surrounding environment antonym: allassotonic.

contraction

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A reversible reduction in size.
  • (economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.
    • The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
  • (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.
    • 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.
    • "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."
  • (medicine) Contracting a disease.
    • The contraction of AIDS from toilet seats is extremely rare.
  • (phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
  • The acquisition of something, generally negative.
    • Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
  • (medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.

    • Antonyms

    * expansion * dilatation

    Derived terms

    * contractional * contractionary * hypercontraction * supercontraction

    Related terms

    * contract * contractation * contractive

    See also

    * omission * *

    auxotonic

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (botany) Relating to plant movement classified by growth as opposed to mature reactions to exogenous stimuli in surrounding environment. Antonym: allassotonic
  • (physiology) Of or involving muscular contraction against resistance in which the length of the muscle changes and the tension differs due to an increasing load or difference in leverage. Antonym in regard to movement is isometric. Antonym in regard to tonus is isotonic. Tonic movements (auxo or iso) are either concentric (working muscle shortens) or eccentric (working muscle lengthens).

    • See also

    * concentric * eccentric * hypotonic * hypertonic * isometric * isokinetic * isotonic

    References

    * (botanical sense) Answers.com], [http://www.wordnik.com/words/auxotonic Wordnik.com * (physiological sense) , Bodybuilding.com], [http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861587921/auxotonic.html MSN Encarta], [http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/auxotonic TheFreeDictionary