What does "contraction" mean?
Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.; An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative).
Contraction
/kənˈtɹækʃn̩/ noun
noun ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.; An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative).
- Grammar: contraction is listed as noun.
- Nearest alternatives: abatement, abbreviation, abridgment, alleviation.
- Useful contrasts: burgeoning, diastolic, elastic stretch.
- Usage evidence: An obstetrician estimates the progress of childbirth by measuring the time between each contraction.
How to use "contraction"
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- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "contraction" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "contraction" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "contraction" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "contraction" is acting as noun in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.; An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative). countable, uncountable
"Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors."
- 2 the act of decreasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope wordnet
- 3 Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.; An act of entering into a contract or agreement; specifically, a contract of marriage; a contracting; also (obsolete), a betrothal. archaic, countable, uncountable
- 4 (physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber) wordnet
- 5 Senses relating to becoming involved with or entering into, especially entering into a contract.; The process of contracting or becoming infected with a disease. countable, uncountable
"the contraction of malaria"
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds wordnet
- 7 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; An abridgement or shortening of writing, etc.; an abstract, a summary; also (uncountable), brevity, conciseness. archaic, countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 8 the process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together wordnet
- 9 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; A stage of wound healing during which the wound edges are gradually pulled together. countable, uncountable
- 10 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; A shortening of a muscle during its use; specifically, a strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth. countable, uncountable
"Though occasionally a “flatliner” can be revived with a defib, it is most commonly used to change the uncoordinated contractions of the heart (fibrillation) into a normal sinus rhythm—that is, to defibrillate the heart."
- 11 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; A period of economic decline or negative growth. countable, uncountable
"The country’s economic contraction was caused by high oil prices."
- 12 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are reduced or lost, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word. countable, uncountable
"In the English words didn’t, that’s, and wanna, the endings -n’t, -’s, and -a arose by contraction."
- 13 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; In the English language: a shortened form of a word, often with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe or a diacritical mark. countable, uncountable
"Don’t is a contraction of do not; and ’til is a contraction of until."
- 14 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; Synonym of syncope (“the elision or loss of a sound from the interior of a word, especially of a vowel sound with loss of a syllable”). countable, uncountable
- 15 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; The preimage of the given ideal under the given homomorphism. countable, uncountable
- 16 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.; A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity. broadly, countable, uncountable
- 17 Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.; An act of collecting or gathering. countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable
Antonyms
Example
"An obstetrician estimates the progress of childbirth by measuring the time between each contraction."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "contraction"?
Common synonyms include: abatement, abbreviation, abridgment, alleviation, apocope, aposiopesis.
How do you use "contraction" in a sentence?
An obstetrician estimates the progress of childbirth by measuring the time between each contraction.
How do you pronounce "contraction"?
Pronounced /kənˈtɹækʃn̩/.
Etymology
PIE word *ḱóm From Late Middle English contraccioun, contraxion (“spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together”), from Old French contraction (modern French contraction), from Latin contractiō(n) (“a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency”), from contrahō (“to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract”) + -tiō(n) (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results). Contrahō is derived from con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) + trahō (“to drag, pull”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”)). By surface analysis, contract + -ion (suffix denoting actions or processes, or their results).