Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Abridge |
AbridgeVerb1. Reduce in scope while retaining essential elements; "The manuscript must be shortened". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "abridge" was first used: some time around 1303. (references) |
Note: Abridge \A*bridge"\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Abridged; present participle verb or noun Abridging.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | ABRIDGE, v.t. To shorten. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to abridge their king, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Oliver Cromwell. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Abridge is not formed from the word bridge; but comes from the Latin abbreviare, to shorten, from brevis (short), through the French abréger (to shorten). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: AbridgeSynonyms: abbreviate (v), contract (v), cut (v), foreshorten (v), reduce (v), shorten (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Compendium | Verb: abridge, abstract, epitomize, summarize; make an abstract, prepare an abstract, draw an abstract, compile an abstract; n. |
Conciseness | Verb: be concise; Adjective: condense; abridge; abstract; come to the point. |
Nonincrease, Decrease | Verb: decrease, diminish, lessen; abridge; (shorten); shrink; (contract); drop off, fall off, tail off; fall away, waste, wear; wane, ebb, decline; descend; subside; melt away, die away; retire into the shade, hide its diminished head, fall to a low ebb, run low, languish, decay, crumble. |
Shortness | Verb: be short; Adjective: render short; Adjective: shorten, curtail, abridge, abbreviate, take in, reduce; compress; (contract); epitomize. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Abridge |
| English words defined with "abridge": Abregge, Abridging ♦ Condensing engine ♦ Razee. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "abridge": Audley. (references) |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Amendment to US Constitution | 1795-2008 | No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Uruguay | The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press; however, the authorities sometimes limit freedom of the press and the authorities may abridge these rights if persons are deemed to be inciting violence or "insulting the nation." All elements of the political spectrum freely express their viewpoints in both print and broadcast media. (references) |
Economic History | Poland | Ownership may be restricted only by law and only to the extent to which it does not abridge the essence of the right of ownership." In the case of land, a second form of title is the perpetual lease, under which the lease holder generally controls the property for 40 to 99 years, and which can be extended for up to 99 additional years. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Abridge" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 86.67% of the time. "Abridge" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 86.67% | 13 | 97,576 |
| Noun (proper) | 13.33% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 15 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "abridge": abridge smb.'s rights. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
abridge | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "abridge"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaan | verminder (abate, decrease, diminish, drop, fall, lessen). (various references) | |
Albanian | shkurtoj (abbreviate, ax, axe, buck, clip, compress, condense, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, detruncate, dock, epitomize, pare, poll, prune, razee, retrench, shorten, truncate, undercut, whittle down), pakësoj (abate, curtail, cut down, deflate, degrade, diminish, lessen, lower, narrow, pare, razee, reduce, retrench, slacken, understate, vitiate), përmbledh (abstract, brief, collect, compress, condense, precis, recapitulate, sum up, summarize). (various references) | |
Arabic | لخص (abstract, brief, condense, digest, epitomize, recap, recapitulate, sum, summarize), قصر (become shorter, brevity, castle, chateau, contract, court, fragility, limit, limitation, mansion, mortar, narrowness, palace, reduction, restriction, shorten, shortness, smallness), حرم (ban, be bereaved, be forbidden, bereave, contraband, debar, deny, deprive, disable, dispossess, divest, excommunicate, forbade, forbid, geld, interdict, inviolable, outlaw, prohibit, proscribe, restrain, rob, sacred, sanctuary, starve, suppress, wife), إختصر (abbreviate, analyse, analyze, boil down, clip, curtail, cut short, limit, nick, outline, reduce, shorten, syncopate). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | съкращавам (abbreviate, cancel, condense, contract, curtail, cut short, discard, elide, prune, reduce, retrench, slash, take off, terminate, truncate), лишавам (bereave, bereft, denude, drain, drain of, pinch, shear, starve). (various references) | |
Chinese | 节 (Abridged, Abridging). (various references) | |
Czech | zkrátit (abbreviate, Bob, condense, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, cut short, dock, reduce, shorten), zestruènit (compress, condense, epitomize). (various references) | |
Danish | forkorte (abbreviate, curtail, shorten). (various references) | |
Dutch | afkorten (abbreviate, curtail, shorten). (various references) | |
Esperanto | malplilongigi (abbreviate, curtail, shorten), malpliigi (abate, decrease, lessen), mallongigi (abbreviate, shorten), limigi (confine, limit, restrict). (various references) | |
Farsi | مختصرکردن (Abbreviate, Shorten, Simplify), کوتاه کردن (Abbreviate, Curtail, Dock, Short, Shorten, Stag). (various references) | |
Finnish | typistää (crop, cut short, dock, maim, mutilate), supistaa (abbreviate, constrict, contract, curtail, cut, cut down, limit, reduce, restrict), lyhentää (abbreviate, curtail, cut short, pay off, shorten). (various references) | |
French | abréger (abate, abbreviate, abstract). (various references) | |
Frisian | ferkoartsje (abbreviate, curtail, shorten), bekoartsje (abbreviate, curtail, shorten). (various references) | |
German | kürzen (ax, axe, cancel, curtail, cut, dock, prune, reduce, retrench, shorten, take up, to abbreviate, to abridge, to clip, to curtail, to shorten), verkürzen (abbreviate, curtail, cut, cut down, cut short, decrease, end, foreshorten, narrow, reduce, shorten, to abbreviate, to abridge, to shorten), abkürzen (abbreviate, be cut, curtail, cut short, shorten, take a short cut, to abbreviate, to cut short, to shorten). (various references) | |
Greek | συντομεύω (abbreviate). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לכוץ (narrow), ל"פחית (abate, cut down, decrease, devaluate, diminish, lower, reduce, remit, step down, subtract, take away). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rövidít (abbreviate, curtail, shorten, to abbreviate, to abridge, to take a short cut). (various references) | |
Indonesian | mengurangi (attenuate, curtail, deaden, deduct, detract, diminish, relieve, substract), memperpendek (shorten), memendekkan (curtail, shorten), membatasi (border, bound, curb, curtail, define, form the border of, limit, restrict). (various references) | |
Italian | abbreviare (abbreviate, curtail, cut short, shorten), accorciare (abbreviate, become shorten, curtail, shorten), riassumere (abstract, brief, digest, epitomise, epitomize, reassume, recapitulate, re-engage, sum up, summarise, summarize, take on again), compendiare (abstract, epitomise, epitomize). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 端折る (to abridge, to tuck up). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | はしおる (to abridge, to tuck up), はしょる (to abridge, to tuck up). (various references) | |
Korean | 축소하십시". (various references) | |
Malay | singkat (abbreviate, curtail, shorten), menyingkat (abbreviate, curtail, shorten). (various references) | |
Manx | girraghey (abbreviate, abridgement, abridging, contract, foreshorten, shorten, shortening), giarrey (abbreviate, abridging, axe, beat out, bob the tail; severance, bob; severance, carve, castrate, cleave, clip, clip as words; slicing, clip; slicing, condensation, condense, condensing, crop, crop as tail, curtail, curtailment, cut, cut away, cut back, cut short, cut up, disconnect, disconnection, dissect, erupt, eruption, flux, gash, hack, hew, incise, incision, infliction, intersect, intersection, lance, levy, lop, mark out, nicking, prune, pruning, puncture, reaping, scission, section, sever, shear, sink, slash, slit, snip, truncate). (various references) | |
Norwegian | forminske (abate, decrease, diminish, lessen). (various references) | |
Papiamen | abreviá (abbreviate, curtail, shorten). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | abridgeay.(various references) | |
Polish | skrócić. (various references) | |
Portuguese | resumir (abbreviate, abstract, boil down, brief, compact, compress, condense, digest, epizootic, extract, precise, resume, shorten, sum up, summarize, wind up), limitar (bind, border, bound, cabin, check, circumscribe, condition, confine, contain, cramp, define, dock, gaolbird, hedge, jailbird, limit, narrow, number, put a lid on, qualify, restrict, retrench, scant, shorten, specialize, terminate, tie, verge). (various references) | |
Romanian | prescurta (abbreviate, condense, curtail, reduce, riddle, shorten), abrevia (abbreviate, contract, curtail, shorten). (various references) | |
Russian | сокращать (abbreviate, blue pencil, blue-pencil, condense, constrict, contract, curtail, cut, cut back, divide out, dock, epitomize, pare, pare away, razee, reduce, shorten, shortens). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | uskratiti (debar, forbid, interdict), skratiti (abbreviate, curtail, cut short, detruncate, foreshorten, reduce, shorten, syncopate, telescope, truncate), sažimati (compress, resume, sum, sum up), sažeti (abstract, compress, condense, epitomize, summarize), lišiti (cut off, deny, deprave, deprive, divest, free, rid, rob, strip). (various references) | |
Spanish | abreviar (abbreviate, be quick, boil down, curtail, cut short, shorten, to explode), limitar (confine, keep down, limit, pale, qualify, restrict, stint, tie, tie down, wind down), compendiar (abbreviate, epitomize, summarize), acortar (abbreviate, clip, curtail, cut back, cut short, shorten, turn up), extractar (abstract, extract, yank). (various references) | |
Swedish | förkorta (abbreviate, curtail, cut, encapsulate, reduce, short circuit, shorten, telescope). (various references) | |
Turkish | mahrum etmek (con smb. out of, debar, debar from, deny, deprive, detain, dispossess, divest, divest smb. of, lose, mulct, oust, shear, spoil, starve, stint), kisaltmak (abbreviate, curtail, shorten), kısmak (attenuate, ax, axe, check, choke, choke back, choke off, curtail, cut back, cut down on, depress, diminish, draw in, economize, narrow, pare, pare down, pinch, put down, qualify, reduce, retrench, scrimp, skimp, soften, stint, throttle, throttle down, tighten, turn down), kısaltmak (abbreviate, cancel, clip, compress, curtail, cut down, dock, edit, make shorter, prune, reduce, retrench, short circuit, shorten, summarize, take up), özetlemek (abstract, boil down, brief, compress, encapsulate, epitomize, incapsulate, outline, precis, reduce, resume, sum up, summarize, totalize, wrap up). (various references) | |
Ukranian | скорочувати (abate, abbreviate, ax, axe, blue pencil, boil down, cancel, castrate, curtail, cut, lop away, lop off, prune, retrench, shorten, shrink), обмежувати (astrict, bail, bound, circumscribe, confine, cramp, enclose, limit, narrow, pinch on, restrain, restrict, stint, straiten, terminate), позбавляти (bare, denude, deprive, despoil, divest, oust, purge, reave, release). (various references) | |
Welsh | talfyrru (abbreviate), cwtogi (curtail, shorten), byr.hau (abbreviate, shorten). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | abbreviare, arta, artabitur, artabuntur, artavitque, arto, artor, breviabuntur, breviandi, brevians, breviantes, breviare, breviasset, breviata, breviati, breviatum, breviavit, curtare. (various references) |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | abbreviare. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "abridge": abridged, abridgement, abridgements, abridger, abridgers, abridges. (additional references) | |
Words containing "abridge": unabridged. (additional references) | |
| |
"Abridge" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Aberargie, abride, abrige, abriged, Agbrigg, Alberigo, Albridge, Alridge, Atridae, Babbidge, bardge, Bavidge, eridge, Erridge, Ogridge. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "abridge" (pronounced ubri"j) |
| 4 | -b r i" j | bridge. |
| 3 | -r i" j | fridge, ridge. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: brigade. | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-d-e-g-i-r" | |
-1 letter: abider, badger, barged, begird, bridge, garbed. | |
-2 letters: abide, aider, aired, ardeb, badge, barde, bared, barge, beard, bider, braid, bread, bride, deair, debar, dirge, gibed, giber, grade, gride, irade, rabid, raged, rebid, redia, ridge. | |
-3 letters: abed, abri, aged, ager, aide, arid, bade, bard, bare, bead, bear, berg, bide, bier, bird, brad, brae, brag, bred, brie, brig, darb, dare, dear, dire, drab, drag, dreg, drib, egad, gadi, gaed, garb, gear, gibe, gied, gird, grab, grad, grid, idea, ired, rage, ragi, raid, read, ride. | |
-4 letters: age, aid, air, arb, are, bad, bag, bar, bed, beg, bid, big, bra, dab, dag, deb, dib, die, dig, ear, era, erg, gab, gad, gae, gar, ged, gib, gid, gie, ire, rad, rag, reb, red, reg, rei, ria, rib, rid, rig. | |
-5 letters: ab, ad, ae, ag, ai, ar, ba, be, bi, de, ed, er, id, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-d-e-g-i-r" | |
+1 letter: abridged, abridger, abridges, bearding, bigarade, birdcage, breading, brigaded, brigades. | |
+2 letters: abridgers, badgering, bargained, bedraping, bigarades, birdcages, brigadier, debarking, debarring, gabardine, gaberdine. | |
+3 letters: abridgment, arbitraged, bartending, bedwarfing, bighearted, biodegrade, bridgeable, bridgehead, brigadiers, brigandage, brigandine, broadening, budgerigar, drawbridge, gabardines, gaberdines, reboarding, redbaiting, ringbarked, unabridged. | |
+4 letters: abridgement, abridgments, becowarding, bedarkening, bediapering, bedraggling, bespreading, biodegraded, biodegrades, bridgeheads, brigandages, brigandines, budgerigars, burglarized, drawbridges, drumbeating, fingerboard, gingerbread, grandbabies, harbingered, keyboarding. | |
+5 letters: abridgements, bigheartedly, biodegrading, breadwinning, childbearing, deliberating, descrambling, diagrammable, disagreeable, disagreeably, disembarking, drumbeatings, fiberglassed, fingerboards, gingerbreads, gingerbready, outbargained, straightbred, subirrigated, unbridgeable. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 62 72 69 64 67 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- -... .-. .. -.. --. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01100010 01110010 01101001 01100100 01100111 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A b r i d g e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0062 0072 0069 0064 0067 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)35688475707371 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Historic | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.