short
primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration
How often you will meet it
Rank 397 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 50,205 times across 155,370 chapters — 0.024% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 500 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
adjective
- primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration a short lifea short flight
- (primarily spatial sense) having little length or lacking in length short skirtsshort hair
- low in stature; not tall also: little he was short and stockyshort in stature
- of insufficient quantity to meet a need also: inadequate, poor, jejune an inadequate incomea poor salary
- (of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range also: unretentive, forgetful a short memory
- not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices a short saleshort in cotton
short in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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The look he threw upon me was little short of terrible.
The Betrayal · E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim · Chapter 1
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Then read a short scene in detail, allowing each actor to read several parts.
The White Christmas and other Merry · Walter Ben Hare · Chapter 1
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To this letter the council gave a short reply, accepting his resignation, and appointing a successor.
Snowflakes and Sunbeams · R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne · Chapter 1
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She stopped short, and he felt, in the darkness, that her face was lifted quickly to his.
Ethan Frome · Edith Wharton · Chapter 1
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She had nice, round, fresh cheeks and nice, big, honest eyes, plenty of mouse-brown hair and a short, straight nose.
Emily Fox-Seton · Frances Hodgson Burnett · Chapter 1