reduction: Meaning and Definition of

re•duc•tion

1. the act of reducing or the state of being reduced.
2. the amount by which something is reduced or diminished.
3. a form produced by reducing; a copy on a smaller scale.
4. meiosis, esp. the first meiotic cell division in which the chromosome number is reduced by half.
5. the process or result of reducing.
6. the process of making a print of a narrower gauge from a print of a wider gauge: the reduction of 35-mm films to 16-mm for the school market.
7. a village or settlement of Indians in South America established and governed by Spanish Jesuit missionaries.