shorten
/ˈʃɔɹtn̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.38 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "York came round to our heads and shortened the rein himself, one hole I think; every little makes a difference, be it for better or worse, and that day we had a steep hill to go up."
- "The full title of the unified system, the South Eastern & London, Chatham & Dover Railways, was decidedly cumbersome, and for the sake of convenience was shortened to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway."
- "Spoiled of his nose, and shorten'd of his ears."
- "to shorten an allowance of food"
- "Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain."
- "My grandfather, as I said before, was connected with a gang of shorters, and sometimes shortened money, […]"
Etymology
From Middle English shortnen, schortenen, equivalent to short + -en (verbal suffix). In some senses, a continuation (in altered form) of Middle English schorten (“to make short, shorten”), from Old English sċortian (“to become short”), from Proto-Germanic *skurtōną (“to shorten”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: shortnen, schorten, sċortian, *skurtōną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃɔɹtn̩/
- British English: /ˈʃɔːtn̩/