abridgment

American  

[uh-brij-muhnt] / əˈbrɪdʒ mənt /

Or abridgement

noun

1. a shortened or condensed form of a book, speech, etc., that still retains the basic contents.

   an abridgment of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

   Synonyms:

   outline, brief, syllabus, conspectus, précis, summary, abstract, synopsis, compendium, epitome, digest

   Antonyms:

   enlargement, expansion

2. the act or process of abridging.

   Synonyms:

   compression, contraction, shortening, reduction

   Antonyms:

   enlargement, expansion

3. the state of being abridged.

4. reduction or curtailment.

   abridgment of civil rights.

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abridgment British  

/ əˈbrɪdʒmənt /

noun

1. a shortened version of a written work

2. the act of abridging or state of being abridged

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Other Word Forms

• nonabridgment noun

Etymology

Origin of abridgment

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English abreg(g)ement, abrygement, from Middle French abregement; abridge, -ment

Explanation

A version of a book that's shorter than the original is an abridgment. That tiny reference book you can fit in your pocket is an abridgment of the enormous tome your parents keep on a wooden dictionary stand. There are a lot of abridgments in the world of audiobooks. If you don't have 33 hours available to listen to George Eliot's Middlemarch, you might consider an abridgment that captures the basic story in under three hours. You can use this word to describe the work of shortening a longer work, too: "The abridgment of my life story is proving much more challenging than I expected." Abridgment comes from a root that means "short."

Example Sentences

In 1952 Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas published a four-volume abridgment of his diaries.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

“Article IV: Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.”

From Salon • Mar. 30, 2025

The Supreme Court ruled without dissenting opinions that the law did not violate the US Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech.

From BBC • Jan. 17, 2025

Fred Korematsu, a U.S. citizen, had been arrested in 1942 for defying the exclusion order and fought the abridgment of his civil liberties for forty years.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

Exception 2.—A few words ending in e drop the e before a suffix beginning with a consonant: as, judge + ment = judgment; lodge + ment = lodgment; abridge + ment = abridgment.

From New Word-Analysis by William Swinton