abbreviationitis

noun

The excessive use of abbreviations.

Scrabble 23
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Meanings

nounabbreviationitis (uncountable)
  1. humorousrareuncountableThe excessive use of abbreviations.

    (The New World guys chop off the ically ; maybe this lexie taciturnity led to the younger generation’s rampant abbreviationitis.)

    2009 June 14, William Safire, “Dictionaurus”, in New York Times
    2 more examples

    We are evidently in for a bad patch of abbreviationitis. However, in the matter of chemical mechanisms we do seem to have passed the stage which could be referred to in general as OGIAGAA (one guess is as good as another).

    1952, Science progress, volume 40, numbers 157-160

    In the future, if this abbreviationitis continues, all makes of cameras and apparatus will be known by symbols and numbers instead of names. This regimentation will knock all the nonsense out of shopping.

    1954, British journal of photography, volume 101

Origin

From abbreviation + -itis.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

abbreviationitis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/abbreviationitis

MLA

“abbreviationitis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/abbreviationitis. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “abbreviationitis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/abbreviationitis.

Source: abbreviationitis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.