AQA A-level English Language – Language Change Practice Test

Clipping is the process of shortening a word by cutting off part of it. In the example, "bus" from "omnibus" shows how a longer word is reduced to a shorter, easier form that’s commonly used in everyday speech. This kind of shortening happens frequently in English, giving familiar forms such as lab from laboratory or phone from telephone. The other terms describe different kinds of language change that affect meaning rather than length: a euphemism substitutes a milder term, amelioration is a shift to a more favorable meaning, and neosemic shift refers to creating or adopting a new sense for a word. So the correct term for this shortened form is clipping.