A system for devising an abridged form of any term that is used in an alarm message intended to be displayed on a screen of the cockpit of an aircraft. The system includes a database having a set of predetermined construction rules and a processor that receives a message term and subjects the term to the construction rules so as to automatically form a plurality of different abbreviations of the term. A human interface allows an operator to analyze the abbreviations by subjecting each of them to a transparency criterion. And a selection section selects one abbreviation as an abridged form for the term based on an analysis response received from the operator.