Research
A shortened form of a word or phrase (acronym, initialism, or contraction), conventionally spelled out in full on first use.
Merriam-Webster: “a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole word or phrase”, and “the act or result of abbreviating something: abridgment”. Through Middle English abbreviacioun and Anglo-French from Late Latin abbreviātiō, from abbreviāre. First recorded in the fifteenth century — in the second sense, the act of shortening, before the shortened form itself.
Merriam-Webster is cited as the dictionary of record: where an entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it. How the term is used in research writing, above, is this lexicon’s own reading.
Deeper treatment: this term also has a full entry in the Business Library.
From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).
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Developed by Amit Jain at allfrontierglobal.com · purposed.in · purposed · purposed2 · merchcomp.com · uuka.org
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