Definitions for contraction

• Definition
• Anagrams (458)

contraction con·trac·tion

Spelling: [kuh n-trak-shuh n]

IPA: /kənˈtræk ʃən/

Contraction is a 11 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 15 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 19 points.

You can make 458 anagrams from letters in contraction (accinnoortt).

Definitions for contraction

noun

1. an act or instance of contracting.
2. the quality or state of being contracted.
3. a shortened form of a word or group of words, with the omitted letters often replaced in written English by an apostrophe, as e'er for ever, isn't for is not, dep't for department.
4. Physiology. the change in a muscle by which it becomes thickened and shortened.
5. a restriction or withdrawal, as of currency or of funds available as call money.
6. a decrease in economic and industrial activity (opposed to expansion).

Origin of contraction

1375-1425; late Middle English (Middle French) Latin contractiōn- (stem of contractiō), equivalent to contract(us) drawn together, past participle of contrahere (see

Examples for contraction

Every muscle in his body responded with a contraction of full intensity.

White is produced by the dilation, black by the contraction, of the particles of sight.

“The regime army is in a state of contraction,” says Mustafa Sheikh, the head of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

If the lameness arise from contraction, rather than from weakness, the best means will be frequent rubbing of the part affected.

As the glue dries and breaks by contraction, it chips off the surface of the glass.

Megan: So let's start with the contraction of the market for lawyers: do we know what's causing it?

As a result the U.S.—and the world—economy experienced 12 successive quarters of contraction.

The increase in public payrolls was helping to offset the contraction of private ones.

A kind of universal cramp seized me—a contraction of every fibre of my body.

If that contraction has continued over the summer, we call it a recession.