You searched for: “abbreviations
abbreviation (uh bree” vi AY shuhn) (s) (noun), abbreviations (pl)
1. The result of reducing something, such as a form or a short summary: The Executive Summary of the report was a good abbreviation of the full financial report.
2. A shortened form of a spoken word, or written symbol; a part of a word or symbol standing for the whole: There are many abbreviations for title words and one common abbreviation is Mr. for Mister.

A very familiar abbreviation is "etc." which is the abbreviation for "et cetera" meaning "and the rest", "and others", "and so forth" which is used at the end of a list to indicate that other items of the same class or type should be considered or included.

Word Entries at Get Words: “abbreviations
abbreviation (uh bree" vee AY shuhn) (s) (noun), abbreviations (pl)
1. A shortened form, an abridgment, or a condensation of a longer publication: Every Reader's Digest condensed book is an abbreviation of an originally longer work.

Some abbreviation of Gary's speech was necessary because he didn't have enough time to deliver all of it.

2. Letters which are used to represent shortened forms or references to words or phrases: U.S.A., FBI, Calif., and Dr. are just a few abbreviations or shortened forms of words or phrases to represent the full terms.
3. Letters that are shortened references for a word or a phrase and which themselves are pronounceable as words: NATO, NASA, and UNICEF are types of abbreviations called acronyms; or abbreviations that may be pronounced as a word rather than just as a series of letters.

Remember: an abbreviation is pronounced as separate letters (U.S.A., FBI) while an acronym may be pronounced as a word (NATO, NASA).

4. Etymology: from Middle French abréviation, from Late Latin abbreviationem, abbreviatio, from abbreviare "to make brief" from Latin ad, "to" + breviare "to shorten" from brevis "short, low, little, shallow".
This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group A (page 1)
(shortened forms of spoken words or written symbols, or phrases, used chiefly in writing to represent the complete forms)
(some of the common terms and abbreviations used by those who send out text messages)