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Short definition

Short is an adjective meaning "primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration." It has 23 meanings, as an adjective, an adverb, a noun and a verb, listed below with example sentences.

Part of speech
adjective, adverb, noun, verb
Syllables
1
Letters
5
How common
Everyday word

Short as an adjective

  1. primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration

    "a short life"

  2. (primarily spatial sense) having little length or lacking in length

    "short skirts"

  3. low in stature; not tall; describing something or someone with a stature less than normal

    "he was short and stocky"

    Same sense: little

  4. of insufficient quantity to meet a need

    "money is short"

    Same sense: poor, inadequate, jejune

  5. (of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range

    "a short memory"

    Same sense: forgetful, unretentive

  6. not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices

    "a short sale"

  7. of speech sounds or syllables of relatively short duration

    "the English vowel sounds in ‘pat’, ‘pet’, ‘pit’, ‘pot’, ‘putt’ are short"

  8. less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so

    "regularly gives short weight"

    Same sense: light, scant

  9. lacking foresight or scope

    "a short view of the problem"

    Same sense: myopic, shortsighted, unforesightful

  10. tending to crumble or break into flakes due to a large amount of shortening

    "shortbread is a short crumbly cookie"

  11. marked by rude or peremptory shortness

    "the salesgirl was very short with him"

    Same sense: curt, brusque, brusk

Short as an adverb

  1. clean across

    "the car's axle snapped short"

  2. without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold

    "he made his fortune by selling short just before the crash"

  3. at some point or distance before a goal is reached

    "he fell short of our expectations"

  4. so as to interrupt

    "She took him up short before he could continue"

  5. at a disadvantage

    "I was caught short"

    Same sense: unawares

  6. in a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner

    "he talked short with everyone"

    Same sense: shortly, curtly

  7. quickly and without warning

    Same sense: dead, suddenly, all of a sudden, of a sudden, abruptly

Short as a noun

  1. the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed

  2. accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference

    Same sense: short circuit

  3. the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between second and third base

    Same sense: shortstop

Short as a verb

  1. cheat someone by not returning them enough money

    Same sense: short-change

  2. create a short circuit in

    Same sense: short-circuit

Synonyms and antonyms

Opposites: long, tall.

All synonyms of short, sense by sense

How to say short

Short has 1 syllable and rhymes with support. Syllable counts and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.

Words that rhyme with short

SHORT in word games

Scrabble
8
Words With Friends
7
Anagrams
1

Is SHORT a valid Scrabble word? Yes, it is in the ENABLE list most word games use. Check SHORT in the word checker, or unscramble SHORT to see its 1 anagram and the shorter words in its letters.

Definitions and examples from Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0). Browse more words in the dictionary.