Meaning

noun (physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber)

noun the process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together

noun a word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds

originPIE word *ḱóm From Late Middle English contraccioun, contraxion (“spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together”), from Old French contraction (modern French contraction), from Latin contractiō(n) (“a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency”), from contrahō (“to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0