From LateMiddle English contraccioun contraxion ( “ spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together ” ) ,[ 1] Old French contraction French contraction Latin contractiō(n) ( “ a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency ” ) , fromcontrahō ( “ to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract ” ) [ 2] -tiō(n) ( suffix formingnouns relating to actions or their results) .Contrahō con- ( prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) +trahō ( “ to drag, pull ” ) (probably fromProto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ( “ to drag, pull; to run ” ) ). Bysurface analysis ,contract -ion ( suffix denoting actions or processes, or their results ) .
contraction (countable anduncountable plural contractions
Senses relating tobecoming involved with orentering into, especially entering into acontract . Anact ofincurring debt ; also( generally ) acquiring something (generallynegative ).Ourcontraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
( archaic ) agreement ; specifically, a contract ofmarriage ; acontracting ; also( obsolete ) betrothal .( biology , medicine ) process ofcontracting or becominginfected with adisease .Synonyms: acquiring catching thecontraction of malaria
2020 April 8, David Turner, “How Railway Staff were Conduits and Victims of a Pandemic”, inRail Bauer Media ,→ISSN →OCLC 32 :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 – thatcontraction 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.
Senses relating topulling together orshortening . A (sometimesreversible ) contracting orreduction inlength ,scope ,size , orvolume ; anarrowing , ashortening , ashrinking .Antonyms: dilatation dilation expansion ( archaic or obsolete ) abridgement or shortening ofwriting , etc.; anabstract , asummary ; also( uncountable ) brevity ,conciseness .( abridgement or shortening of writing, etc. ) : Synonyms: condensation epitome ( biology , medicine ) stage ofwound healing during which the woundedges aregradually pulled together.( biology , medicine ) muscle during itsuse ; specifically, astrong and oftenpainful shortening of theuterine muscles prior to or duringchildbirth .2011 Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology , page125 :Though occasionally a “flatliner” can be revived with a defib, it is most commonly used to change the uncoordinatedcontractions of the heart (fibrillation) into a normal sinus rhythm—that is, to defibrillate the heart.
( economics ) period ofeconomic decline or negativegrowth .The country’s economiccontraction was caused by high oil prices.
( linguistics ) sounds of afree morpheme (aword ) arereduced orlost , such that it becomes abound morpheme (aclitic ) thatattaches phonologically to anadjacent word.Hyponyms: apheresis apocope elision syncope In the English wordsdidn’t ,that’s , andwanna , the endings-n’t ,-’s , and-a arose bycontraction .
( orthography ) English language : a shortenedform of a word, often withomitted letters replaced by anapostrophe or adiacritical mark .Don’t is acontraction ofdo not ; and’til is acontraction ofuntil .
( linguistics , phonology , prosody ) Synonym ofsyncope ( “ theelision orloss of asound from theinterior of aword , especially of avowel sound with loss of asyllable ” ) .( ring theory, of anideal in thecodomain of aring homomorphism ) preimage of the given ideal under the given homomorphism.( by extension ) shorthand symbol indicating anomission for thepurpose of brevity. ( obsolete , rare ) collecting orgathering .act of incurring debt; act of acquiring something (generally negative)
act of entering into a contract or agreement
—see contracting process of contracting or becoming infected with a disease
(sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume
Afrikaans:verkleining Bulgarian:скъсяване (bg) n ( skǎsjavane ) ,свиване (bg) n ( svivane ) Burmese:ချုံ့ခြင်း ( hkyum.hkrang: ) ,ကျုံ့ခြင်း ( kyum.hkrang: ) Catalan:contracció (ca) f Chinese:Mandarin:收縮 / 收缩 (zh) ( shōusuō ) Finnish:supistuminen (fi) French:contraction (fr) f Galician:please add this translation if you can German:Kontraktion (de) ,Abnahme (de) f Abnehmen n Minderung (de) f Schrumpfen n Schrumpfung m Schwinden n Schwindung (de) f Verengung (de) f Verkleinerung (de) ,Verkürzung (de) f Zusammenziehung (de) f Stauchung f Hebrew:התכווצות f ( hitkavtzut ) Hungarian:összehúzás (hu) ,összehúzódás (hu) Indonesian:kontraksi (id) Italian:contrazione (it) f Japanese:収縮 (ja) ( しゅうしゅく, shūshuku ) Korean:단축 (ko) ( danchuk ) Kyrgyz:кыскаруу (ky) ( kıskaruu ) Latin:contractiō f Macedonian:скрату́вање n ( skratúvanje ) Norwegian:kontraksjon forminskning Occitan:contraccion (oc) f Portuguese:contração (pt) f Romanian:contracție (ro) f Russian:сокраще́ние (ru) n ( sokraščénije ) ,сжа́тие (ru) n ( sžátije ) Spanish:contracción (es) f Swedish:kontraktion (sv) ,minskning (sv) Tagalog:daginsin Tajik:дардгирӣ (tg) ( dardgiri ) Thai:การหดตัว Uzbek:qisqarish (uz)
stage of wound healing during which the wound edges are gradually pulled together
shortening of a muscle during its use
Bulgarian:свиване (bg) n ( svivane ) Catalan:contracció (ca) f Finnish:lihassupistus supistus (fi) French:contraction (fr) f Galician:please add this translation if you can German:Kontraktion (de) f Kontraktur (de) f Anspannung (de) f Einschnürung f Verengung (de) f Verkürzung (de) f Zusammenziehung (de) f Zusammenziehen n Zuziehung f Hebrew:התכווצות f ( hitkavtzut ) Hungarian:kontrakció (hu) ,izom-összehúzódás összehúzódás (hu) Japanese:攣縮 ( れんしゅく, renshuku ) Korean:위축 (ko) ( wichuk ) Kurdish:Northern Kurdish:girjbûn (ku) Macedonian:please add this translation if you can Maori:kukutinga Norwegian:kontraksjon sammentrekning Occitan:contraccion (oc) f Portuguese:contração (pt) f crispação (pt) f Russian:сокраще́ние (ru) n ( sokraščénije ) ,сжа́тие (ru) n ( sžátije ) Spanish:contracción (es) f Swedish:kontraktion (sv) ,sammandragning Welsh:cyfangiad m
strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth
period of economic decline or negative growth
process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme are reduced or lost
shortened form of a word, often with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe or a diacritical mark
shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity
Finnish:lyhennemerkki Galician:please add this translation if you can Macedonian:please add this translation if you can
^ “contracciǒun,n. ”, inMED Online University of Michigan ,2007 ^ Compare“contraction,n. ”, inOED Online Oxford University Press , March 2023 “contraction,n. ”, inLexico Dictionary.com ;Oxford University Press ,2019–2022 FromOld French contraction borrowed fromLatin contractiōnem accusative singular ofcontractiō ( “ a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency ” ) , fromcontrahō ( “ to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract ” ) +-tiō ( suffix formingnouns relating to actions or their results) ;contrahō is derived fromcon- ( prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) +trahō ( “ to drag, pull ” ) (probably fromProto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- ( “ to drag, pull; to run ” ) ).
contraction f plural contractions
contraction 
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2023;“contraction,n.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
contraction (grammar) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia