1. A process for devising an abridged form of any term that is used in at least one alarm message displayed on at least one screen of the cockpit of an aircraft, a) said term is subjected to a set of predetermined construction rules in such a way as to form a plurality of different abbreviations of said term; b) the abbreviations thus formed are analyzed by subjecting each of them to at least one transparency criterion; and c) on the basis of this analysis, one selects as abridged form for said term: if just one of said abbreviations satisfies said transparency criterion, this abbreviation; if none of said abbreviations satisfies said transparency criterion, said term in full; and if several of said abbreviations satisfy said transparency criterion, that which satisfied said transparency criterion quickest.