Taut vs Contraction - What's the difference?
taut | contraction |
Tight; under tension, as in a rope or bow string.
* 1883:
Experiencing stress or anxiety.
* 1989 Faye Kellerman, The Quality of Mercy
Containing only relevant parts, brief and controlled.
* 2007 Milton C. Sernett, Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History
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.
(medicine) 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.
As an adjective taut
is tight; under tension, as in a rope or bow string.As a noun contraction is
a reversible reduction in size.taut
English
Alternative forms
* (Scotland)Adjective
(er)- The hawser was as taut as a bowstring - so strong she pulled upon her anchor.
- His outward appearance was calm, but inside he was very taut .
- Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters.
Derived terms
* tauten * tautly * tautnessSynonyms
tense ----contraction
English
Noun
(en noun)- The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
- In English ''didn't'', ''that's'', and ''wanna'', the endings ''-n't'', ''-'s'', and ''-a'' arose by contraction .
- "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."
- The contraction of AIDS from toilet seats is extremely rare.
- Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
