Shortening, abbreviating, reducing, and syncopating are all terms that refer to making something shorter or shorter. Synonyms for shorten include abbreviate, reduce, elide, and truncar. Shortening implies a reduction in length or duration, while reducing suggests a decrease in the extent or cost of something that is considered excessive. Syncopate refers to the linguistic process of syncope, in which part of a word is circumvented.
Elide means “omit” and generally refers to removing a letter, word or phrase from a document. Truncar is ultimately from the Latin word truncus and means “cut off the top of”. Abbreviate ultimately comes from the Latin verb abbreviare and means “abbreviate”.
