diff --git a/pelican/rstdirectives.py b/pelican/rstdirectives.py
index 1bf6971c..1c25cc42 100644
--- a/pelican/rstdirectives.py
+++ b/pelican/rstdirectives.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ directives.register_directive('code-block', Pygments)
 directives.register_directive('sourcecode', Pygments)
 
 
-_abbr_re = re.compile('\((.*)\)$')
+_abbr_re = re.compile('\((.*)\)$', re.DOTALL)
 
 
 class abbreviation(nodes.Inline, nodes.TextElement):