Synonyms for short
- adjective
- adverb
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Brief — having little duration
brief, succinct, quick, fleeting, compact, close, summary, thick, pithy, transitory, condensed, stocky, crisp, momentary, temporary, abbreviated, ephemeral, transient, fugitive, compendious, epigrammatic, sententious
2. Lacking — deficient; less; not coming up to a measure or standard
lacking, insufficient, inadequate, shy informal, poor, incomplete, scanty, deficient, wanting, imperfect, defective, jejune
3. Little — of a person, living being, or object, having a comparatively small height
little, small, petite, pint-sized informal, chunky, tetchy UK US IE, runty, base dated
4. Curt — abrupt, brief, pointed, curt
curt, blunt, brusque, terse, abrupt, laconic, discourteous, uncivil
Other
narrow, stubby, stumpy, scant, straight, short-term, limited, thick-set, low, slim, direct, severe
Adverb
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Of a person, living being, or object, having a comparatively small height.
- adj. 2
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.
- adv. 1
Abruptly, curtly, briefly.
He cut me short repeatedly in the meeting.
- adv. 2
Unawares.
We were caught short by the sudden hailstorm.
Related words
- Word family
- shortness shorty shorts
- Phrases
- cut short sell short short short story short-form short gross short temper short sale short and curlies
- Is a kind of
- small
Choose the right word
Anything short or brief is of relatively small extent.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- brief It was a long letter, but in brief, he said, "No."
- summary I'm not expecting details; just a summary is fine.
- fleeting At the age of 84, I dreamed about a fleeting love.
- succinct The epitaph engraved on the headstone was a meaningful, succinct poem.
- jejune They all hold jejune worldviews.
- little I was disappointed at there being so little to do.
By length
- 3 letters
- low1, shy1
- 4 letters
- dead1, poor1, base1, slim1, curt1
- 5 letters
- small1, close1, quick1, brief1, thick1, blunt1, crisp1, scant1, terse1, pithy2, runty
- 6 letters
- little2, direct2, severe2, narrow2, petite2, abrupt2, chunky2, stocky2, stubby2, scanty2, stumpy, curtly2, tetchy, jejune2
- 7 letters
- limited3, wanting2, shortly2, summary3, compact2, lacking2, brusque1, laconic3, uncivil3
- 8 letters
- straight1, suddenly3, abruptly3, fugitive3, fleeting2, succinct2, unawares3
- 9 letters
- temporary4, defective3, imperfect3, condensed2, transient2, deficient3, momentary4, ephemeral4
- 10 letters
- incomplete3, inadequate4, transitory4
- 11 letters
- abbreviated5, compendious, sententious
- 12 letters
- insufficient4, discourteous, epigrammatic5
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (pithy2 = 2 syllables).