Contraction vs. Contracture — What's the Difference?

The act of contracting or the state of being contracted.

In pathology, a contracture is a permanent shortening of a muscle or joint. It is usually in response to prolonged hypertonic spasticity in a concentrated muscle area, such as is seen in the tightest muscles of people with conditions like spastic cerebral palsy, but can also be due to congenital abnormal development of muscles and connective tissue in the womb.

A word, as won't from will not, or phrase, as o'clock from of the clock, formed by omitting or combining some of the sounds of a longer phrase.

An abnormal, often permanent shortening, as of muscle or scar tissue, that results in distortion or deformity, especially of a joint of the body.

The formation of such a word.

A deformity resulting from a contracture.

(Physiology) The shortening and thickening of functioning muscle or muscle fiber.

(medicine) An abnormal, sometimes permanent, contraction of a muscle or skin; a deformity so caused.

Any of a series of sudden and involuntary tightenings of the uterine muscles occurring before or during childbirth.

A state of permanent rigidity or contraction of the muscles, generally of the flexor muscles.

A period of decreased business activity.

An abnormal and usually permanent contraction of a muscle

A reversible reduction in size.

(economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.

A shortening of a muscle during its use.

A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.

(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.

(English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.

A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.

The acquisition of something, generally negative.

The process of contracting a disease.

(phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.

A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.

The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendon; the contraction produced by cold.

The process of shortening an operation.

The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease.

Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; - as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.

The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is.

A marriage contract.

(physiology) a shortening or tensing of a part or organ (especially of a muscle or muscle fiber)

The process or result of becoming smaller or pressed together;

A word formed from two or more words by omitting or combining some sounds;

The act of decreasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope