The difference between Contraction and Expansion
When used as nouns, contraction means a reversible reduction in size, whereas expansion means the act or process of expanding.
check bellow for the other definitions of Contraction and Expansion
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Contraction as a noun:
A reversible reduction in size.
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Contraction as a noun (economics):
A period of economic decline or negative growth.
Examples:
"The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices."
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Contraction as a noun (biology):
A shortening of a muscle when it is used.
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Contraction as a noun (medicine):
A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
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Contraction as a noun (linguistics):
A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are lost or reduced, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.
Examples:
"In English ''didn't'', ''that's'', and ''wanna'', the endings ''-n't'', ''-'s'', and ''-a'' arose by contraction."
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Contraction as a noun (English orthography):
A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.
Examples:
"Don't" is a contraction of "do not."
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Contraction as a noun:
A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.
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Contraction as a noun (medicine):
Contracting a disease.
Examples:
"The contraction of AIDS from toilet seats is extremely rare."
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Contraction as a noun (phonetics):
Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
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Contraction as a noun:
The acquisition of something, generally negative.
Examples:
"Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors."
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Contraction as a noun (medicine):
A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.
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Expansion as a noun:
The act or process of expanding.
Examples:
"The expansion of metals and plastics in response to heat is well understood."
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Expansion as a noun:
The fractional change in unit length per unit length per unit temperature change.
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Expansion as a noun:
A new addition.
Examples:
"My new office is in the expansion behind the main building."
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Expansion as a noun:
A product to be used with a previous product.
Examples:
"This expansion requires the original game board."
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Expansion as a noun:
That which is expanded; expanse; extended surface.
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Expansion as a noun (steam engines):
The operation of steam in a cylinder after its communication with the boiler has been cut off, by which it continues to exert pressure upon the moving piston.