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contract

/kənˈtrækt//kənˈtrækt/·verb
to become smaller or tighter by drawing inward; also, to catch a disease or make a formal agreement
Fig. 1 — The anemone in the tide pool sits open like a soft firework, tentacles combing the water.
01Definition

To contract is to draw in on yourself and become smaller or tighter — muscles contract, pupils contract in bright light, metals contract in the cold, and an economy contracts in a bad year. From Latin contrahere, 'to draw together', the word keeps the sense of an inward pull rather than an outside force: where a sweater is shrunk by hot water, a heart contracts on its own signal. Two side doors matter too: you contract a disease, and (as a noun, with the stress moved) you sign a contract.

02In use
  • iCold makes the metal rails contract, leaving small gaps between sections.
  • iiThe heart muscle contracts about seventy times a minute at rest.
  • iiiAnalysts expect the economy to contract before it begins to expand again.
03Collocations
  • muscles contract
  • the economy contracts
  • contract a disease
  • metals contract when cooled
  • contract sharply

Family contraction (noun) · contracted (adjective) · contractile (adjective)

04Relations

=shrink, tighten, narrow, compress, draw in

≠expand, widen, dilate

05Compared
PairThe difference
contract vs constrictsqueezed narrower by something around it → constrict; draws itself in, smaller and tighter → contract.
contract vs contacttouching or getting in touch → contact; drawing inward, shrinking — or catching an illness → contract.
contract vs dilatethe whole thing draws inward, smaller or tighter → contract; an opening widens from the middle out → dilate.
contract vs expanddraws inward and gets smaller or tighter → contract; grows outward in size, number, or scope → expand.
06TOEFL & IELTS

A heteronym: the verb is con-TRACT, the noun (the signed agreement) is CON-tract — listening sections exploit the difference. In IELTS Task 1 and TOEFL science passages the verb carries two workhorse patterns: economies and markets contract (the standard opposite of grow/expand in trend language), and materials expand when heated, contract when cooled. The medical sense — contract an illness, never 'contact' one — is a common essay slip worth drilling.

07Asked
How do you pronounce contract — CON-tract or con-TRACT?
Both, depending on the job. The noun puts the stress first: a CON-tract (/ˈkɑːntrækt/ in American English), the signed agreement. The verb puts it second: metals con-TRACT (/kənˈtrækt/) in the cold. English does this with dozens of noun–verb twins (REC-ord/re-CORD, PER-mit/per-MIT), and listening tests lean on the pattern: the stress tells you which word you just heard.
What does contract mean when it is not about agreements?
To become smaller or tighter by drawing inward — the flesh-and-physics sense the scene above acts out: touched, the anemone contracts into a button. Pupils contract in bright light (the reflex takes about a fifth of a second), leather contracts as it dries, an economy contracts when output falls. The inward pull is the signature: the thing gathers itself in, in every direction, rather than being trimmed from outside.
Why do we say 'contract a disease'?
It is the drawing-together picture applied to fate: you draw the illness to yourself — formally and blamelessly. 'She contracted malaria while travelling' is the neutral, clinical register; 'caught' is the everyday one. Watch the classic misspelling: learners often write 'contact a disease', which spell-checkers accept because contact is a real word — but the verb is contract, with an r.
Do muscles contract or expand when they work?
They contract — every movement you make is a muscle shortening and thickening on command, then relaxing. Muscles never actively expand; they are pulled back out by gravity or by their opposing partner (the biceps contracts to bend the arm, the triceps contracts to straighten it). That is why physiology speaks of muscle contraction, and why 'the muscle expanded' reads as an error.
Do materials really contract when cooled?
Almost all of them, yes — cooling slows the atoms and lets them sit closer together, so the object takes up less room. Engineers design around it: rail gaps, bridge expansion joints and pipeline loops all leave room for the expand-when-heated, contract-when-cooled cycle. Water is the famous exception, expanding as it freezes — which is why pipes burst in winter rather than shrivel.
What is the difference between contract and shrink?
Direction of agency. Contract is the inward pull from within — muscles, pupils, economies act on themselves. Shrink is the all-purpose result word, and often something else does it to you: the wash shrinks the sweater. Where both fit, contract sounds technical and deliberate, shrink plain and passive.
Is contract used in economics?
Constantly — it is the standard verb for an economy getting smaller: 'GDP contracted by 2% in the second quarter'. It pairs with grow or expand as its opposite, and the noun in that register is contraction ('the sharpest contraction since 2009'). In IELTS Task 1 trend writing, 'the market contracted' earns the precision that 'went down' does not.