Associations to the word «Contraction»

Wiktionary

CONTRACTION, noun. A reversible reduction in size.
CONTRACTION, noun. (economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.
CONTRACTION, noun. (biology) A shortening of a muscle when it is used.
CONTRACTION, noun. (medicine) A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
CONTRACTION, noun. (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.
CONTRACTION, noun. (English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.
CONTRACTION, noun. (medicine) Contracting a disease.
CONTRACTION, noun. (phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
CONTRACTION, noun. The acquisition of something, generally negative.
CONTRACTION, noun. (medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.

Dictionary definition

CONTRACTION, noun. (physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber).
CONTRACTION, noun. The process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together; "the contraction of a gas on cooling".
CONTRACTION, noun. A word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds; "`won't' is a contraction of `will not'"; "`o'clock' is a contraction of `of the clock'".
CONTRACTION, noun. The act of decreasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope.

Wise words

In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
Plutarch