Home / Words / abridgeNo. 0004

abridge

/əˈbrɪdʒ/·verb

to shorten a text while keeping its substance
Fig. 1 — The tome takes two hands; the slim cover beside it wouldn't trouble a coat pocket.
01Definition

To abridge is to shorten a work without breaking it: the abridged edition keeps the story, the argument and the voice, and sheds the bulk — a dictionary's 'unabridged' label is a promise that nothing was shed at all. From Old French abregier, 'to make short'. Law borrows it for rights: a freedom abridged has been trimmed at the edges, less of it now, though it still exists.

02In use
  • iThe publisher abridged the novel for the audio edition, cutting it to nine hours.
  • iiStudents often read an abridged version before attempting the full text.
  • iiiThe First Amendment forbids Congress to make any law abridging the freedom of speech.
03Collocations
  • an abridged edition
  • an abridged version
  • an unabridged dictionary
  • abridge a text
  • abridging the freedom of speech

Family abridgement (noun) · abridged (adjective) · unabridged (adjective)

04Relations

=condense, shorten, compress, abbreviate, cut

≠expand, lengthen, amplify

06TOEFL & IELTS

A reading-section regular: editions are abridged, dictionaries advertise themselves unabridged, and the First Amendment's 'abridging the freedom of speech' makes it a fixture of civics passages. Keep the family straight: abbreviate clips a word (Dr, UK); abridge trims a work — both promise the meaning survives. Against condense, the method differs: condensing rewrites into denser prose, abridging removes material and leaves what stays as it was written. The noun accepts both spellings, abridgement and abridgment.

07Asked
What is the difference between abridged and unabridged audiobooks?
An abridged audiobook is read from a shortened text — cuts commonly remove anywhere from a third to well over half of the book, so a recording may run at half the unabridged length. Unabridged means every word of the original, and the industry has moved almost entirely that way. The scene above builds an abridged edition in miniature: the bulk sails off, the essential pages cross to the slim binding.
What does 'abridging the freedom of speech' mean in the First Amendment?
Legally, to abridge is to reduce or contract a right — trim it at the edges — not necessarily to abolish it. The First Amendment's phrasing is precise: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, which courts read as reaching partial restrictions on speech, not only outright bans.
What is the difference between abridge and abbreviate?
Scale. Abbreviate clips written forms — Doctor to Dr, as soon as possible to ASAP. Abridge trims whole works — a novel, a dictionary, a report — while keeping their substance. The twist worth remembering: both words descend from the same Latin abbreviare, 'to make short'; they are etymological doublets that divided the labour, one taking the words, the other the works.
Is it abridgement or abridgment?
Both are correct, and dictionaries carry both. It follows the judgement/judgment pattern: British English prefers to keep the e (abridgement), American English often drops it (abridgment) — though in US usage the two spellings run close to even. Pick one and keep it through a document — mixing the two conventions reads as a spelling error.
What is the difference between abridge and condense?
What happens to the surviving text. Abridging removes material — scenes, chapters, digressions — and leaves what remains as the author wrote it. Condensing rewrites: the same content re-expressed in denser prose, every page recast. An abridged novel still sounds like its author line by line; a condensed one has been re-voiced to fit.
Are abridged books worth reading?
It depends on the job the book is doing. For access — a dense classic, a second language, a long commute — an abridgement done well delivers the story and the argument at a fraction of the length, which is why schools use them. What it cannot deliver is texture: pacing, digressions and side characters are the usual casualties. Readers who want the author's every decision want unabridged.