Word.ws English Dictionary

shortlex

shortlex noun: a total ordering for finite sequences of objects that can themselves be totally ordered. Sequences are primarily sorted by cardinality (length) with the shortest sequences first, and sequences of the same length are sorted into lexicographic order.

Noun

shortlex (uncountable)

  1. (attributive, often) A total ordering for finite sequences of objects that can themselves be totally ordered. Sequences are primarily sorted by cardinality (length) with the shortest sequences first, and sequences of the same length are sorted into lexicographic order.
    • a shortlex normal form

Origin of shortlex

From short lexicographic.

Questions about shortlex

What does shortlex mean?
Shortlex means a total ordering for finite sequences of objects that can themselves be totally ordered. Sequences are primarily sorted by cardinality (length) with the shortest sequences first, and sequences of the same length are sorted into lexicographic order.
What part of speech is shortlex?
Shortlex is a noun.

Words near shortlex in the dictionary

  1. shortleaf
  2. shortleaf pine
  3. shortleaf pines
  4. shortlegged
  5. shortleggedness
  6. shortlex
  7. shortline
  8. shortlines
  9. shortlink
  10. shortlist
  11. shortlisted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shortlex (page history and authors). 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.

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