SYN
–abridgment describes a work condensed from a larger work by omitting the less important parts, but keeping the main contents more or less unaltered; an abstract is a short statement of the basic contents of a book, court record, etc. often used as an index to the original material; brief and summary both imply a statement of the main points of the matter under consideration[the brief of a legal argument], summary, especially,connoting a recapitulating statement; a synopsis is a condensed, orderly treatment, as of the plot of a novel, that permits a quick general view of the whole; a digest is a concise, systematic treatment, generally more comprehensive in scope than a synopsis, and, in the case of technical material, often arranged under titles for quick reference; an epitome is a statement of a statement of the essence of a subject in the shortest possible form
–ANT. expansion