Meaning & use

abridged

adjective·Academic

Shortened by removing some content while keeping the main ideas of the original.

See it in a sentence

The library only had an abridged version of the classic novel available.

Students read the abridged edition of the play to save time before the test.

A note on using this word

Abridged applies mainly to written works; use shortened or condensed for other things that have been reduced.

Words with a similar meaning

condensedshortened

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

unabridgedfull-length

Another way to use it

2. verb

Shortened a text by cutting out material while preserving its essential content, past tense of abridge.

The editor abridged the biography, cutting nearly two hundred pages from the original manuscript.

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