Diminution

1. n. In counterpoint, the imitation of, or reply to, a subject, in notes of half the length or value of those the subject itself.
2. n. The act of diminishing, or of making or becoming less; state of being diminished; reduction in size, quantity, or degree; — opposed to augmentation or increase.
3. n. The act of lessening dignity or consideration, or the state of being deprived of dignity; a lowering in estimation; degradation; abasement.
4. n. Omission, inaccuracy, or defect in a record.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.