Word.ws English Dictionary

short

UK/ʃɔːt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ʃoːt/

short adjective: having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically. Also the ellipsis of short bond paper.

Adjective

short (comparative shorter, superlative shortest)

  1. Having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically.
    Synonyms:
    low, narrow, slim, shallow
    Antonyms:
    long, tall, high, broad, deep
  2. Of a person, living being, or object, having a comparatively small height.
    • Nhung Ngo had the shortest legs at Site-43. She was the shortest member of staff, two inches beneath the positively elfin Delfina Ibanez, and yet Lillian found her inexplicably difficult to shake. Power-walking down the halls didn't do the trick, as it always did when Wettle-dodging, since the...2022 September 22, HarryBlank, “Mind Over Matter”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 23 May 2024
    Antonyms:
    tall
  3. Having little duration.
    • Our meeting was a short six minutes today. Every day for the past month it’s been at least twenty minutes long.
    • The results of this generalized speedup of the corporate metabolism are multiple: shorter product life cycles, more leasing and renting, more frequent buying and selling, more ephemeral consumption patterns, […]1980, Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, page 230
    Synonyms:
    brief, concise
    Antonyms:
    long
  4. Of a word or phrase, constituting an abbreviation (for another) or shortened form (of another).
    • "Phone" is short for "telephone" and "asap" short for "as soon as possible".
  5. Of a fielder or fielding position, that is relatively close to the batsman.
    Antonyms:
    long
  6. Of a ball, bowled so that it bounces relatively far from the batsman.
  7. Of an approach shot or putt, that falls short of the green or the hole.
  8. Of betting odds, offering a small return for the money wagered.
  9. Of pastries or (metallurgy) of materials, brittle, crumbly.
    • shortbread
    • hot short
  10. Abrupt, brief, pointed, curt.
    • He gave a short answer to the question.
    • “We are short to-night!” cries the woman, with a propitiatory laugh. “Short and snappish we are! […]”1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC
  11. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty.
    • a short supply of provisions
  12. Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied, especially with money; scantily furnished; lacking.
    • to be short of money
    • I'd lend you the cash but I'm a little short at present.
Show 6 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Deficient; less; not coming up to a measure or standard.
    • an account which is short of the truth
    • […]the people are worn down with taxes, and hardly anything short of an invasion could rouse them again to war.1829, Walter Savage Landor, “The Emperor Alexander and Capo D'Istria”, in Imaginary Conversations, volume IV
  2. (colloquial) Undiluted; neat.
    • “There ain’t no drain of nothing short handy, is there?” said the Chicken, generally. “This here sluicing night is hard lines to a man as lives on his condition.”
      Captain Cuttle proffered a glass of rum […]1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC
    • Delance raised his beer and watched Hoadly throw down another swig of hard stuff. "Take it short if you want to make it over the mountain tonight."2003, Linda Chaikin, Desert Rose
  3. (obsolete) Not distant in time; near at hand.
    • Marinell was sore offended / That his departure thence should be so short.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18
    • He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day.1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed...
  4. Being in a financial investment position that is structured to be profitable if the price of the underlying security declines in the future.
    • short position
    • I'm short in General Motors because I think their sales are plunging.
    Antonyms:
    long
  5. (broadly) Doubtful of, skeptical of.
  6. (dated) Of money, given in the fewest possible notes, i.e. those of the largest denomination.
    • He pulled a cheque-book from his pocket, and drew for two hundred thousand pounds. “I'll take it short,” he said […]1909, James Blyth, The member for Easterby, page 296
    Antonyms:
    long

Adverb

short (not comparable)

  1. Abruptly, curtly, briefly.
    • They had to stop short to avoid hitting the dog in the street.
    • He cut me short repeatedly in the meeting.
  2. Unawares.
    • The recent developments at work caught them short.
    • We were caught short by the sudden hailstorm.
  3. Without achieving a goal or requirement.
    • His speech fell short of what was expected.
  4. Relatively far from the batsman and hence bouncing higher than normal; opposite of full.
  5. With a negative ownership position.
    • We went short most finance companies in July.

Noun

short (plural shorts)

  1. A short circuit.
    • The circuit breaker keeps tripping because there's a short in the wiring.
  2. A short film.
    • Preceded by a Simpsons short shot in 3-D—perhaps the only thing more superfluous than a fourth Ice Age movie—Ice Age: Continental Drift finds a retinue of vaguely contemporaneous animals coping with life in the post-Pangaea age.2012 July 12, Sam Adams, AV Club, Ice Age: Continental Drift
    1. (Internet) A short-form vertical video.
    2. (Internet, broadly) A vertical video of any length.
      • long short
  3. A short version of a garment in a particular size.
    • 38 short suits fit me right off the rack.
    • Do you have that size in a short?
  4. A shortstop.
    • Jones smashes a grounder between third and short.
  5. A short seller.
    • The market decline was terrible, but the shorts were buying champagne.
  6. A short sale or short position.
    • He closed out his short at a modest loss after three months.
    • The company’s stock is one of the largest shorts in the market, meaning many investors are betting it could fall even farther.2025 August 25, Julie Creswell, “Krispy Kreme Bets on Big-Box Stores to Stay Fresh”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
  7. A summary account.
    • For the short and the long is, our play is preferred.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
  8. A short phone (such as a vowel) or syllable.
    • If we compare the nearest conventional shorts and longs in English, as in ‘bit’ and ‘beat’, ‘not’ and ‘naught’, we find that the short vowels are generally wide (i, ɔ), the long narrow (i, ɔ), besides being generally diphthongic as well.1877, Henry Sweet, A Handbook of Phonetics, page 18
  9. An integer variable having a smaller range than normal integers; usually two bytes long.
  10. (US, slang) An automobile.
    • crack shorts
    • For example, one addict would crack shorts (break and enter cars) and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.1975, Mary Sanches, Ben G. Blount, Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Use, page 47

Verb

short (third-person singular simple present shorts, present participle shorting, simple past and past participle shorted)

  1. (transitive) To cause a short circuit in (something).
    • You should short the poles of the capacitor to discharge it before you work on it.
  2. (intransitive) To short circuit.
  3. (informal, transitive) To provide with an amount smaller than that agreed or labeled; to shortchange.
    • This is the third time I've caught them shorting us.
    • It's hard now. The NEA, state and city budgets are messed up and it's the small artists like us that are the ones getting shorted.1991 August 24, Maridee BonaDea, quoting Brian Freeman, “Pomo Afro Homos On The Road”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 6, page 9
  4. (transitive) To sell something, especially securities, that one does not own at the moment for delivery at a later date in hopes of profiting from a decline in the price; to sell short.
  5. (obsolete) To shorten.

Preposition

short

  1. Deficient in.
    • We are short a few men on the second shift.
    • He's short common sense.
    Synonyms:
    lacking
  2. Having a negative position in.
    • I don’t want to be short the market going into the weekend.

Proper noun capitalized: Short

Short

  1. A surname.
    • Tigers manager A.J. Hinch had just inserted Zack Short to pinch-hit for Akil Baddoo, the type of chess-match move Hinch is making more than ever this season.2023 May 26, Cody Stavenhagen, “A.J. Hinch is managing with confidence as the Tigers hang tight in the AL Central”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Dec 2025
  2. An unincorporated community in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, United States.
  3. A census-designated place in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, United States.

Also used as

short is also the ellipsis of short bond paper.

short meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

short in Hindi

having a small distance between ends or edges
कम kam, नाटा nāṭā, छोटा choṭā

short in Tamil

of a person, of comparatively small height
குள்ளமான kuḷḷamāṉa

short in Marathi

संक्षिप्त

short in Urdu

having a small distance between ends or edges
چھوٹا choṭā, کوتاہ kutāh
More languagesFewer languages
short in Bengali
কম kom
short in Malayalam
ചെറിയ ceṟiya, കുറിയ kuṟiya
short in Gujarati
ટૂંકી, ટૂંકું, ટૂંકો
short in Odia
ସଂକ୍ଷିପ୍ତ
short in Sanskrit
ह्रस्व hrasva
short in Assamese
চুটি suti, চাপৰ sapor, চুটি-চাপৰ suti-sapor, চমু somu
short in Nepali
छोटो
short in Pashto
لنډ lanḍ
short in Arabic
قَصِير qaṣīr, قصير ’uṣáyyar
short in Malay
pendek, singkat
short in Persian
کوتاه kutâh, قد کوتاه qad-kutâh, کوتوله kutule
short in Thai
สั้น sân, เตี้ย dtîia
short in Vietnamese
ngắn, thấp, lùn
short in Myanmar
တို tui, ပု pu., နိမ့် nim.

Examples of short in a sentence

  • The cashier came up short ten dollars on his morning shift.
  • The boss got a message and cut the meeting short.
  • Nhung Ngo had the shortest legs at Site-43.2022 September 22, HarryBlank, “Mind Over Matter”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 23 May 2024:
  • Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19...
  • I chose to interpret the references to butter and sugar as indicating that a short pastry was required. (Later editions suggest a biscuit-like texture.)2013, Heston Blumenthal, Historic Heston, →ISBN, page 122:
  • The reason I was a tad short with Start, Leeper and Burnsome was my fear they, with their education, experience and degrees, would see what I had denied for all these years[…].2014, Charles E. Schwarz, Murder at the Table of Fools:

All 40 example sentences with short

Synonyms of short

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of short

Forms of short

Adjective
comparativeshorter
superlativeshortest
Noun
pluralshorts
Verb
third-person singular presentshorts
present participleshorting
past participleshorted
pastshorted

Past tense of short: shorted

Plural of short: shorts

Origin of short

From Middle English schort, short, from Old English sċeort, sċort (“short”), from Proto-West Germanic *skurt, from Proto-Germanic *skurtaz (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-. Doublet of shirt, skirt, and curt. Cognates Cognate with Scots short, schort (“short”), French court, Dutch kort, German kurz, Old High German scurz (“short”) (whence Middle High German schurz), Old Norse skorta (“to lack”) (whence Danish skorte), Albanian shkurt (“short, brief”), Latin curtus (“shortened, incomplete”) and Proto-Slavic *kortъkъ. See more at shirt.

Words formed from short

Phrases with short

174 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with short

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about short

What does short mean?
Short means having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically.
What is short in Hindi?
Short in Hindi is कम (kam), नाटा (nāṭā), छोटा (choṭā). See Short meaning in Hindi.
How do you use short in a sentence?
The cashier came up short ten dollars on his morning shift.
What part of speech is short?
Short can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce short?
Short is pronounced /ʃɔːt/ (UK).

Words near short in the dictionary

  1. Shorr
  2. Shorrock
  3. Shorrs
  4. shors
  5. Shorses
  6. short
  7. short 20th centuries
  8. short 20th century
  9. short a
  10. short a's
  11. short accounts make long friends

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: short (page history and authors); Short (page history and authors); short (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); short (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); short (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); short (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-short.ogg, En-us-short.ogg.

Cite this entry: “short.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/short. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.