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What is an abbreviation?
Meaning and concept of abbreviation – An abbreviation is any symbol, letter or letters that replace a word or an expression.
In terms of classification, the abbreviation is a grammatical subcategory existing in the Portuguese language. Examples of other subcategories: adjective, adverb, article, pronoun, noun, etc.
In other words, the abbreviation has, in the Portuguese lexicon, its own place in the grammatical definition of a set of words.
Examples of common abbreviations:
- BC – before Christ
- adj. – adjective
- bras – Brazilian, Brazilian or Brazilianism
- cel. - cell or colonel
- etc - et cetera
- id. - the same
- mq - even if
- obs. – observation, used in notes
- dpi – dots per inch
- set - September
But, contrary to what we can judge, the set of words belonging to this grammatical form is vast. It is used in units, names, titles, acronyms, companies, organizations, countries, etc.
Examples:
CEO is used in business as an acronym for Chief Executive Officer.
hPa is used in physics as a symbol for hectopascal.
WAN is used in computing as an acronym for wide area network.
NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Note: It comes from the Italian abbreviation.
