noun
- The omission or loss of one or more sounds or letters at the end of a word.
Usage: linguistics; phonology
Examples
- The word 'lab' is an apocope of 'laboratory'.
- In English, apocope is common in informal speech, such as 'fab' for 'fabulous'.
- The transformation of 'phone' from 'telephone' is an example of apocope.
- Linguists study apocope to understand how languages change over time.
- Many shortened words in modern English result from apocope, like 'ad' from 'advertisement'.