Contractions
We use contractions (I’m, we’re) in everyday speech and informal writing. Contractions, which are sometimes called ‘short forms’, commonly combine a pronoun or noun and a verb, or a verb and not, in a shorter form. Contractions are usually not appropriate in formal writing. …

contraction | American Dictionary

contraction
noun[ C/U ]
us/kənˈtræk·ʃən/
a reduction in size or amount:
[ C ]an economic contraction
[ U ]Heat differences cause rapid expansion and contraction of the gas.
A contraction is a shortening of a muscle intentionally, or a sudden, unexpected, and often painful shortening of a muscle:
[ C ]voluntary/involuntary contractions
[ U ]Contraction of the muscle raises your arm.
[ C ]Researchers think olive oil may slow stomach contractions.
grammar
A contraction is also a shortened form of a word or combination of words:
[ C ]“Can’t” is a contraction of “cannot.”

contraction | Business English

contraction
noun[ C or U ]
 ECONOMICSuk /kənˈtrækʃən/us
a situation in which less money is being earned, spent, or invested in a market or economy:
Michigan's economy experienced a contraction last year.
(a) contraction in sthA sharp contraction in the labour market is predicted.

Examples of contraction

contraction
Experiments evaluating the effects of isoproteronol on tissue removed from the heart at surgery demonstrated initial inhibition of contraction with improvements over time.
The latter is a sequent calculus that needs none of the standard structural rules of weakening, contraction or cut.
This is consistent with the contraction of the regional system and a reduction in the production of export goods.
Two sequences are equivalent if and only if they admit contractions which have a common dilation.
This contraction occurs for the macromolecules themselves but is more dramatic in the case of the lattice contacts.
Along the way, we gain detailed insights into the changes that proofs undergo during cut elimination in the presence of weakening and contraction.
Getting this right can be quite tricky and not doing it may prevent cut or contraction elimination from succeeding correctly.
This is 2:1 second degree atrioventricular block - every other atrial contraction is followed by a ventricular contraction (v).
In this study, the grammatical measure included omissions of articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and contractions, and incorrect usage of word order and negatives.
Shading indicates the degree of pressure exerted on the vessels by contraction.
Instead of summing up expansions and contractions in extraordinary fiscal periods, we allow the effects of fiscal policy to vary between expansions and contraction.
That is, based on the test results, it is inappropriate to group expansions and contraction into a common regime definition such as extraordinary periods.
Initially water was pumped into the reservoir upstream of the contraction and allowed to flow through the contraction.
In particular, the total net flow from the active to the passive vertices is the same before and after the contraction.
Then we derive the typing rules of the catch and throw operators: they correspond respectively to right contraction and weakening rules of classical natural deduction.
See all examples of contraction
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.