Definitions

1. verb

to shorten a word by cutting off a part of its ending, especially to form an abbreviation

“The linguist decided to apocopate the word “telephone” to “tele” for brevity.”

2. verb

to shorten a word by omitting its final syllable

“In some dialects, words like “cavalry” are apocopated to “cavalry”.”

3. noun

the act of apocopating a word

“The apocopation of words is a common phenomenon in language evolution.”