shorten
shorten is a 7-letter English word with 10 senses as adjective, intransitive verb, and verb in the JumbleFix dictionary. One common meaning is: To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity. Face value is 10 in Scrabble and 10 in Words With Friends. Use the entries below when you need a playable sense, a nearby word, or another arrangement of the same letters.
Definitions
- adjective. To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity.
- adjective. To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc.
- adjective. To make deficient (as to); to deprive; -- with of.
- adjective. To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, pot liquor, or the like.
- intransitive verb. To become short or shorter; as, the day shortens in northern latitudes from June to December; a metallic rod shortens by cold.
- verb. edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
"bowdlerize a novel"
- verb. reduce in scope while retaining essential elements
"The manuscript must be shortened"
- verb. become short or shorter
"In winter, the days shorten"
- verb. make shorter than originally intended; reduce or retrench in length or duration
"He shortened his trip due to illness"
- verb. make short or shorter
"shorten the skirt"
"shorten the rope by a few inches"
Synonyms
bowdlerise, bowdlerize, castrate, expurgate, abbreviate, abridge, contract, cut, foreshorten, reduce
Anagrams
Other playable words that use exactly the letters in shorten:
Common word forms
shortens, shortened, shortener, shortening
Words from these letters
If you are holding these tiles, the unscrambler for SHORTEN lists every valid word you can make from the same letters, including shorter plays.