Short vs. Sort — What's the Difference?

Indicates a brief period of time.

Used to describe the process of sifting or filtering.

In finance, means selling stocks one does not own.

To arrange items by type or category.

Describes limited length or duration.

Can indicate considering or deliberating.

Can mean curt or abrupt in manner.

As a noun, it means a type or kind.

Used to describe insufficient quantities.

Refers to finding a solution or method.

Measuring a small distance from end to end

A group of persons or things of the same general character; a kind. See Usage Note at kind2.

Lasting or taking a small amount of time

Character or nature

Relatively small in extent

One that exemplifies the characteristics of or serves a similar function to another

(of a vowel) categorized as short with regard to quality and length (e.g. in standard British English the vowel /ʊ/ in good is short as distinct from the long vowel /uː/ in food).

A person; an individual

(of a person) terse; uncivil

(Computers) An operation that arranges data in a specified way

(of odds or a chance) reflecting or representing a high level of probability

(Archaic) A way of acting or behaving

(of pastry) containing a high proportion of fat to flour and therefore crumbly.

To place or arrange according to class, kind, or size; classify

(chiefly in sport) at, to, or over a relatively small distance

To separate from others

A drink of spirits served in a small measure.

To make a search or examination of a collection of things

A short film as opposed to a feature film.

To be or become arranged in a certain way.

A short sound such as a short signal in Morse code or a short vowel or syllable

A general type.

A short circuit.

Manner; form of being or acting.

A person who sells short.

(obsolete) Condition above the vulgar; rank.

A mixture of bran and coarse flour.

(informal) A person evaluated in a certain way (bad, good, strange, etc.).

Short-circuit or cause to short-circuit

(dated) Group, company.

Sell (stocks or other securities or commodities) in advance of acquiring them, with the aim of making a profit when the price falls

A good-looking woman.

Having little length; not long.

An act of sorting.

Having little height; not tall.

(computing) An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.

Extending or traveling not far or not far enough

(typography) A piece of metal type used to print one letter, character, or symbol in a particular size and style.

Lasting a brief time

(mathematics) A type.

Appearing to pass quickly

(obsolete) Chance; lot; destiny.

Not lengthy; succinct

(obsolete) A full set of anything, such as a pair of shoes, or a suit of clothes.

Rudely brief; abrupt

(transitive) To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.

Easily provoked; irascible

(transitive) To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.

Inadequate; insufficient

(transitive) To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.

Lacking in length or amount

To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.

Lacking in breadth or scope

To choose from a number; to select; to cull.

Deficient in retentiveness

(intransitive) To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.

Holding a trading position that is inversely related to the price of a security or index

(intransitive) To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.

Of or relating to a short sale

To fix (a problem) or handle (a task).

Containing a large amount of shortening; flaky

To attack physically.

Not ductile; brittle

(transitive) To geld.

(Linguistics) Of, relating to, or being a speech sound of relatively brief duration, as the first vowel sound in the Latin word mălus, "evil," as compared with the same or a similar sound of relatively long duration, as the first vowel sound in the Latin word mālus, "apple tree."

Chance; lot; destiny.

(Grammar) Of, relating to, or being a vowel sound in English, such as the vowel sound (ă) in pat or () in put, that is descended from a vowel of brief duration.

A kind or species; any number or collection of individual persons or things characterized by the same or like qualities; a class or order; as, a sort of men; a sort of horses; a sort of trees; a sort of poems.

Being of relatively brief duration. Used of a syllable in quantitative prosody.

Manner; form of being or acting.

(Slang) Close to the end of a tour of military duty.

Condition above the vulgar; rank.

Abruptly; quickly

A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals.

In a rude or curt manner.

A pair; a set; a suit.

At a point before a given boundary, limit, or goal

Letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered.

At a disadvantage

To separate, and place in distinct classes or divisions, as things having different qualities; as, to sort cloths according to their colors; to sort wool or thread according to its fineness.

By means of a short sale

To reduce to order from a confused state.

(Linguistics) A short syllable, vowel, or consonant.

To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.

A brief film; a short subject.

To choose from a number; to select; to cull.

A size of clothing less long than the average for that size.

To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.

Shorts Short pants extending to the knee or above.

To join or associate with others, esp. with others of the same kind or species; to agree.

Shorts Undershorts.

To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.

A short sale.

A category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality;

One that sells short.

An approximate definition or example;

Shorts A byproduct of wheat processing that consists of germ, bran, and coarse meal or flour.

A person of a particular character or nature;

Shorts Clippings or trimmings that remain as byproducts in various manufacturing processes, often used to make an inferior variety of the product.

An operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion;

A short circuit.

Examine in order to test suitability;

A malfunction caused by a short circuit.

Arrange or order by classes or categories;

(Baseball) A shortstop.

To cause a short circuit in.

(Informal) To give (one) less than one is entitled to; shortchange.

To short-sell (a security or index).

To short-circuit.

Having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically.

(of a person) Of comparatively small height.

Having little duration.

(followed by for) Of a word or phrase, constituting an abbreviation (for another) or shortened form (of another).

That is relatively close to the batsman.

Bowled so that it bounces relatively far from the batsman.

That falls short of the green or the hole.

(gambling) Of betting odds, offering a small return for the money wagered.

Brittle, crumbly. See shortbread, shortcake, shortcrust, shortening, hot short, cold-short.

Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant.

Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty.

Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied, especially with money; scantily furnished; lacking.

Deficient; less; not coming up to a measure or standard.

(colloquial) Undiluted; neat.

(obsolete) Not distant in time; near at hand.

(finance) Being in a financial investment position that is structured to be profitable if the price of the underlying security declines in the future.

(by extension) Doubtful of, skeptical of.

Of money: given in the fewest possible notes, i.e. those of the largest denomination.

Abruptly, curtly, briefly.

Unawares.

Without achieving a goal or requirement.

Relatively far from the batsman and hence bouncing higher than normal; opposite of full.

(finance) With a negative ownership position.

A short circuit.

A short film.

A short version of a garment in a particular size.

(baseball) A shortstop.

(finance) A short seller.

(finance) A short sale or short position.

A summary account.

(phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel.

(programming) An integer variable having a smaller range than normal integers; usually two bytes long.

An automobile; especially in crack shorts, to break into automobiles.

(transitive) To cause a short circuit in (something).

To short circuit.

(transitive) To shortchange.

To provide with a smaller than agreed or labeled amount.

To sell something, especially securities, that one does not own at the moment for delivery at a later date in hopes of profiting from a decline in the price; to sell short.

(obsolete) To shorten.

Deficient in.

(finance) Having a negative position in.

Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.

Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath.

Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water.

Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied; scantily furnished; lacking; not coming up to a resonable, or the ordinary, standard; - usually with of; as, to be short of money.

Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the trith.

Not distant in time; near at hand.

Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory.

Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or equivalent; less (than); - with of.

Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question.

Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.

Brittle.

Not prolonged, or relatively less prolonged, in utterance; - opposed to long, and applied to vowels or to syllables. In English, the long and short of the same letter are not, in most cases, the long and short of the same sound; thus, the i in ill is the short sound, not of i in isle, but of ee in eel, and the e in pet is the short sound of a in pate, etc. See Quantity, and Guide to Pronunciation, 22, 30.

A summary account.

The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran.

Short, inferior hemp.

Breeches; shortclothes.

A short sound, syllable, or vowel.

In a short manner; briefly; limitedly; abruptly; quickly; as, to stop short in one's course; to turn short.

To shorten.

To fail; to decrease.

The location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed

Accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference

The fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between 2nd and 3rd base

Cheat someone by not returning him enough money

Create a short-circuit in

Primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration;

Primarily spatial sense; having little length or lacking in length;

Low in stature; not tall;

Not sufficient to meet a need;

Not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices;

Of speech sounds (especially vowels) of relatively short duration (as e.g. the English vowel sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt')

Containing a large amount of shortening; therefore tender and easy to crumble or break into flakes;

Less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so;

Used of syllables that are unaccented or of relatively brief duration

(of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range;

Lacking foresight or scope;

Unwilling to endure;

Quickly aroused to anger;

Most direct;

Marked by rude or peremptory shortness;

Quickly and without warning;

Without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold;

Clean across;

At some point or distance before a goal is reached;

So as to interrupt;

At a disadvantage;

Tightly;

In a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner;

In technical contexts, "short" often refers to an electrical short circuit, meaning a fault in an electrical circuit.

"Short" describes length or duration, while "shortly" is an adverb meaning soon or in a brief time.

Yes, in finance, to "short" a stock means to sell shares you do not currently own, anticipating that the price will drop.

As an adverb, "short" describes an action that is cut off or abruptly terminated, as in "the concert fell short of expectations" or "he stopped short of entering the room."

Yes, "sort" can be used figuratively, often to describe sorting out thoughts or feelings, as in "sorting through one’s emotions."

"Sort" is commonly used in contexts involving organization, such as sorting data, sorting clothes, or sorting mail.

As a noun, "sort" refers to a category or type of something, as in phrases like "a sort of cake" or "what sort of bird is that?"

In computing, "sort" refers to the process of organizing data in a specific order, such as alphabetical or numerical.

In database management, "sort" is a crucial function used to order data entries based on one or more criteria, facilitating quicker searches and organized reporting.

Cultural usage of "short" may vary, especially in social contexts, where being described as "short" might carry different connotations regarding stature or respect.

No, "short" is also used to describe time, quantities, and manners of communication, such as a short meeting, being short on time, or giving a short reply.

Yes, common idioms involving "short" include "cutting someone short," "falling short of expectations," and "in short supply," all of which convey the idea of insufficiency or abruptness.

"Short" is commonly used in contexts relating to physical length, time duration, communication styles, and financial trading.

Synonyms for "short" include brief, concise, curt, and succinct, depending on the context.

Synonyms for "sort" as a verb include classify, categorize, organize, and arrange. As a noun, synonyms include type, kind, and variety.