OXFORD 9000
📚 noun • entry_id 2969

contraction

/kənˈtɹækʃn̩/
Meanings (ES + gloss)
contracción
Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.
Don’t is a contraction of do not; and ’til is a contraction of until.
In the English words didn’t, that’s, and wanna, the endings -n’t, -’s, and -a arose by contraction.
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 rhy…
Word forms