What does short mean?
What does short mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.
What does short mean? - The Free Dictionary
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short - The Free Dictionary
(a short life a short flight a short holiday a short story only a few short months)
(he stopped suddenly)
(short skirts short hair the board was a foot short a short toss)
(he made his fortune by selling short just before the crash)
(he was short and stocky short in stature a short smokestack a little man)
(the car's axle snapped short)
(an inadequate income a poor salary money is short on short rations food is in short supply short on experience)
(he fell short of our expectations)
(a short memory)
(She took him up short before he could continue)
(a short sale short in cotton)
(I was caught short)
(the English vowel sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt' are short)
(he told me curtly to get on with it he talked short with everyone he said shortly that he didn't like it)
(a light pound a scant cup of sugar regularly gives short weight)
(a short view of the problem shortsighted policies shortsighted critics derided the plan myopic thinking)
(shortbread is a short crumbly cookie a short flaky pie crust)
(try to cultivate a less brusque manner a curt reply the salesgirl was very short with him)
Other vocabulary
's gravenhage, s, s wrench, s-shape, s-shaped, s. s. van dine, s. smith stevens, s.t.p., s.u.v., s/n, sa, sa node, saale, saale glaciation, saale river, saame, saami, saarinen, saba, sabah, sabahan, sabal, sabal palmetto, sabaoth, sabaton, sabayon, sabbat, sabbatarian, sabbath, sabbath school, 'hood, human botfly, human chorionic gonadotrophin, human chorionic gonadotropin, human death, human dynamo, human ecology, human elbow, human face, human foot, human gamma globulin, human genome project, human growth hormone, human head, human immunodeficiency virus, human knee, human language technology, human nature, human palaeontology, human paleontology, human papilloma virus, human process, human race, human relationship, human remains pouch, human reproductive cloning, human right, human t-cell leukemia virus-1, human waste, human-centered
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Dictionaries
Dictionary
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.
A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.
There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.
The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.
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