Short vs. Tall — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Updated on October 28, 2023
Short indicates lesser height or length, while tall signifies greater height. Both are relative terms used to describe physical stature or the dimension of objects.
Difference Between Short and Tall
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Short typically refers to a lesser extent in height or length. It's a relative term often used to describe someone or something with a lower stature. In contrast, tall is used to describe a greater height or an elongated appearance. It conveys the idea of something or someone that stands out due to vertical length.
When describing a person, short implies someone of lesser stature compared to average heights. On the other hand, tall denotes a person who exceeds the average height. These terms are often subjective, based on societal norms and personal perceptions.
In literature and storytelling, short and tall are not just physical descriptors; they often carry symbolic meanings. 'Short' might imply brevity or a lack of depth, while 'tall' could signify superiority or prominence. Their connotations can vary based on context.
When discussing objects, short can refer to items with lesser length or height, like a short bookshelf. Conversely, tall is used for objects with extended vertical dimensions, like a tall lamp. The terms serve as quick descriptors of spatial characteristics.
Although short and tall primarily address physical dimensions, they can also extend into temporal and qualitative domains. For example, a short meeting implies brief duration, while a tall tale suggests exaggeration or embellishment.
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Comparison Chart
Height/Length
Indicates lesser height or length.
Indicates greater height or length.
Perception
Often perceived as below average height.
Perceived as above average height.
Usage
Used for people, objects, or time spans of lesser extent.
Used for people or objects with elongated appearance.
Connotation
Can imply brevity, lack, or insufficiency.
May suggest superiority, prominence, or exaggeration.
Contextual Use
Used in physical, temporal, and qualitative contexts.
Used in physical and qualitative contexts.
Compare with Definitions
Short
Having lesser vertical measurement.
He was short for his age.
Tall
Exceeding average height.
She was the tallest in her class.
Short
Lasting for a brief time.
It was a short meeting.
Tall
Extended in length or height.
The tall building dominated the skyline.
Short
Characterized by brevity in speech or writing.
His answer was short and to the point.
Tall
Inclined to exaggerate; a tall tale.
His tall stories amused everyone.
Short
Measuring a small distance from end to end
Short dark hair
A short flight of steps
The bed was too short for him
Tall
Standing out prominently.
The tall trees shaded the path.
Short
Lasting or taking a small amount of time
Visiting London for a short break
A short conversation
Tall
Suggesting superiority or dominance.
He held tall ambitions.
Short
Relatively small in extent
He wrote a short book
A short speech
Tall
Of great or more than average height, especially (with reference to an object) relative to width
A tall, broad-shouldered man
A tall glass of iced tea
Short
(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).
Tall
Having greater than ordinary height
A tall woman.
Short
(of a person) terse; uncivil
He was often sharp and rather short with her
Tall
Having considerable height, especially in relation to width; lofty
Tall trees.
Short
(of odds or a chance) reflecting or representing a high level of probability
They have been backed at short odds to win thousands of pounds
Tall
Having a specified height
A plant three feet tall.
Short
(of pastry) containing a high proportion of fat to flour and therefore crumbly.
Tall
(Informal) Fanciful or exaggerated; boastful
Tall tales of heroic exploits.
Short
(chiefly in sport) at, to, or over a relatively small distance
You go deep and you go short
Tall
Impressively great or difficult
A tall order to fill.
Short
A drink of spirits served in a small measure.
Tall
(Obsolete) Excellent; fine.
Short
A short film as opposed to a feature film.
Tall
With proud bearing; straight
Stand tall.
Short
A short sound such as a short signal in Morse code or a short vowel or syllable
Her call was two longs and a short
Tall
(of a person) Having a vertical extent greater than the average. For example, somebody with a height of over 6 feet would generally be considered to be tall.
Being tall is an advantage in basketball.
Short
A short circuit.
Tall
(of a building, etc.) Having its top a long way up; having a great vertical (and often greater than horizontal) extent; high.
Short
A person who sells short.
Tall
(of a story) Hard to believe, such as a tall story or a tall tale.
Short
A mixture of bran and coarse flour.
Tall
Smaller than grande, usually 8 ounces (~ 230 ml).
Short
Short-circuit or cause to short-circuit
The electrical circuit had shorted out
If the contact terminals are shorted, the battery quickly overheats
Tall
(obsolete) Obsequious; obedient.
Short
Sell (stocks or other securities or commodities) in advance of acquiring them, with the aim of making a profit when the price falls
The rule prevents sellers from shorting a stock unless the last trade resulted in a price increase
Tall
(obsolete) Seemly; suitable; fitting, becoming, comely; attractive, handsome.
Short
Having little length; not long.
Tall
(obsolete) Bold; brave; courageous; valiant.
Short
Having little height; not tall.
Tall
(archaic) Fine; proper; admirable; great; excellent.
Short
Extending or traveling not far or not far enough
A short toss.
Tall
Someone or something that is tall.
Short
Lasting a brief time
A short holiday.
Tall
A clothing size for taller people.
Do you have this in a tall?
Short
Appearing to pass quickly
Finished the job in a few short months.
Tall
A tall serving of a drink, especially one from Starbucks, which contains 12 ounces.
Short
Not lengthy; succinct
Short and to the point.
Tall
High in stature; having a considerable, or an unusual, extension upward; long and comparatively slender; having the diameter or lateral extent small in proportion to the height; as, a tall person, tree, or mast.
Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall.
Short
Rudely brief; abrupt
The owner was quite short with the new hire.
Tall
Brave; bold; courageous.
As tall a trenchermanAs e'er demolished a pye fortification.
His companions, being almost in despair of victory, were suddenly recomforted by Sir William Stanley, which came to succors with three thousand tall men.
Short
Easily provoked; irascible
Has a short temper.
Tall
Fine; splendid; excellent; also, extravagant; excessive.
Short
Inadequate; insufficient
Oil in short supply.
Were short on experience.
Tall
Great in vertical dimension; high in stature;
Tall people
Tall buildings
Tall trees
Tall ships
Short
Lacking in length or amount
A board that is short two inches.
Tall
Lofty in style;
He engages in so much tall talk, one never really realizes what he is saying
Short
Lacking in breadth or scope
A short view of the problem.
Tall
Impressively difficult;
A tall order
Short
Deficient in retentiveness
A short memory.
Tall
Too improbable to admit of belief;
A tall story
Short
Holding a trading position that is inversely related to the price of a security or index
Short investors.
An investor who is short gold.
Short
Of or relating to a short sale
A short position.
Short
Containing a large amount of shortening; flaky
A short pie crust.
Short
Not ductile; brittle
Short iron.
Short
(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."
Short
(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.
Short
Being of relatively brief duration. Used of a syllable in quantitative prosody.
Short
(Slang) Close to the end of a tour of military duty.
Short
Abruptly; quickly
Stop short.
Short
In a rude or curt manner.
Short
At a point before a given boundary, limit, or goal
A missile that landed short of the target.
Short
At a disadvantage
We were caught short by the sudden storm.
Short
By means of a short sale
Selling a commodity short.
Short
(Linguistics) A short syllable, vowel, or consonant.
Short
A brief film; a short subject.
Short
A size of clothing less long than the average for that size.
Short
Shorts Short pants extending to the knee or above.
Short
Shorts Undershorts.
Short
A short sale.
Short
One that sells short.
Short
Shorts A byproduct of wheat processing that consists of germ, bran, and coarse meal or flour.
Short
Shorts Clippings or trimmings that remain as byproducts in various manufacturing processes, often used to make an inferior variety of the product.
Short
A short circuit.
Short
A malfunction caused by a short circuit.
Short
(Baseball) A shortstop.
Short
To cause a short circuit in.
Short
(Informal) To give (one) less than one is entitled to; shortchange.
Short
To short-sell (a security or index).
Short
To short-circuit.
Short
Having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically.
Short
(of a person) Of comparatively small height.
Short
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.
Short
(followed by for) Of a word or phrase, constituting an abbreviation (for another) or shortened form (of another).
"Phone" is short for "telephone" and "asap" short for "as soon as possible".
Short
That is relatively close to the batsman.
Short
Bowled so that it bounces relatively far from the batsman.
Short
That falls short of the green or the hole.
Short
(gambling) Of betting odds, offering a small return for the money wagered.
Short
Brittle, crumbly. See shortbread, shortcake, shortcrust, shortening, hot short, cold-short.
Short
Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant.
He gave a short answer to the question.
Short
Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty.
A short supply of provisions
Short
Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied, especially with money; scantily furnished; lacking.
To be short of money
I'd lend you the cash but I'm a little short at present.
The cashier came up short ten dollars on his morning shift.
Short
Deficient; less; not coming up to a measure or standard.
An account which is short of the truth
Short
(colloquial) Undiluted; neat.
Short
(obsolete) Not distant in time; near at hand.
Short
(finance) Being in a financial investment position that is structured to be profitable if the price of the underlying security declines in the future.
Short position
I'm short in General Motors because I think their sales are plunging.
Short
(by extension) Doubtful of, skeptical of.
Short
Of money: given in the fewest possible notes, i.e. those of the largest denomination.
Short
Abruptly, curtly, briefly.
They had to stop short to avoid hitting the dog in the street.
He cut me short repeatedly in the meeting.
The boss got a message and cut the meeting short.
Short
Unawares.
The recent developments at work caught them short.
Short
Without achieving a goal or requirement.
His speech fell short of what was expected.
Short
Relatively far from the batsman and hence bouncing higher than normal; opposite of full.
Short
(finance) With a negative ownership position.
We went short most finance companies in July.
Short
A short circuit.
Short
A short film.
Short
A short version of a garment in a particular size.
38 short suits fit me right off the rack.
Do you have that size in a short?
Short
(baseball) A shortstop.
Jones smashes a grounder between third and short.
Short
(finance) A short seller.
The market decline was terrible, but the shorts were buying champagne.
Short
(finance) A short sale or short position.
He closed out his short at a modest loss after three months.
Short
A summary account.
Short
(phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel.
Short
(programming) An integer variable having a smaller range than normal integers; usually two bytes long.
Short
An automobile; especially in crack shorts, to break into automobiles.
Short
(transitive) To cause a short circuit in (something).
Short
To short circuit.
Short
(transitive) To shortchange.
Short
To provide with a smaller than agreed or labeled amount.
This is the third time I’ve caught them shorting us.
Short
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.
Short
(obsolete) To shorten.
Short
Deficient in.
We are short a few men on the second shift.
He's short common sense.
Short
(finance) Having a negative position in.
I don’t want to be short the market going into the weekend.
Short
Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.
The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it.
Short
Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath.
The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
To short absense I could yield.
Short
Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water.
Short
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.
We shall be short in our provision.
Short
Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the trith.
Short
Not distant in time; near at hand.
Marinell was sore offendedThat his departure thence should be so short.
He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day.
Short
Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory.
Their own short understandings reachNo farther than the present.
Short
Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or equivalent; less (than); - with of.
Hardly anything short of an invasion could rouse them again to war.
Short
Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question.
Short
Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.
Short
Brittle.
Short
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.
Short
A summary account.
The short and the long is, our play is preferred.
Short
The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran.
The first remove above bran is shorts.
Short
Short, inferior hemp.
Short
Breeches; shortclothes.
Short
A short sound, syllable, or vowel.
If we compare the nearest conventional shorts and longs in English, as in "bit" and "beat," "not" and "naught," we find that the short vowels are generally wide, the long narrow, besides being generally diphthongic as well. Hence, originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet kept quite distinct from the original longs.
Short
In a short manner; briefly; limitedly; abruptly; quickly; as, to stop short in one's course; to turn short.
He was taken up very short, and adjudged corrigible for such presumptuous language.
Short
To shorten.
Short
To fail; to decrease.
Short
The location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed
Short
Accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference
Short
The fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between 2nd and 3rd base
Short
Cheat someone by not returning him enough money
Short
Create a short-circuit in
Short
Primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration;
A short life
A short flight
A short holiday
A short story
Only a few short months
Short
Primarily spatial sense; having little length or lacking in length;
Short skirts
Short hair
The board was a foot short
A short toss
Short
Low in stature; not tall;
His was short and stocky
Short in stature
A short smokestack
Short
Not sufficient to meet a need;
An inadequate income
A poor salary
Money is short
On short rations
Food is in short supply
Short on experience
Short
Not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices;
A short sale
Short in cotton
Short
Of speech sounds (especially vowels) of relatively short duration (as e.g. the English vowel sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt')
Short
Containing a large amount of shortening; therefore tender and easy to crumble or break into flakes;
Shortbread is a short crumbly cookie
A short flaky pie crust
Short
Less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so;
A light pound
A scant cup of sugar
Regularly gives short weight
Short
Used of syllables that are unaccented or of relatively brief duration
Short
(of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range;
A short memory
Short
Lacking foresight or scope;
A short view of the problem
Shortsighted policies
Shortsighted critics derided the plan
Myopic thinking
Short
Unwilling to endure;
She was short with the slower students
Short
Quickly aroused to anger;
A hotheaded commander
Short
Most direct;
Took the shortest and most direct route to town
Short
Marked by rude or peremptory shortness;
Try to cultivate a less brusque manner
A curt reply
The salesgirl was very short with him
Short
Quickly and without warning;
He stopped suddenly
Short
Without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold;
He made his fortune by selling short just before the crash
Short
Clean across;
The car's axle snapped short
Short
At some point or distance before a goal is reached;
He fell short of our expectations
Short
So as to interrupt;
She took him up short before he could continue
Short
At a disadvantage;
I was caught short
Short
Tightly;
She caught him up short on his lapel
Short
In a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner;
He told me curtly to get on with it
He talked short with everyone
He said shortly that he didn't like it
Short
Limited in length or extent.
She preferred short stories.
Short
Not reaching a required amount.
We're short on supplies.
Common Curiosities
Can 'tall' be used metaphorically?
Yes, as in a 'tall order' or 'tall tale.'
Can objects be described as 'tall'?
Yes, like a 'tall building.'
Is 'short' always negative?
Not necessarily; it's context-dependent.
Do 'short' and 'tall' have standard measurements?
No, they're relative terms and vary contextually.
Can 'short' indicate a lack of something?
Yes, as in 'short of funds.'
Do 'short' and 'tall' have fixed meanings in fashion?
They're often used to describe garment lengths.
Is 'short' used for time?
Yes, like a 'short break.'
Can 'tall' suggest dominance or ambition?
Yes, as in 'tall ambitions.'
Is 'tall' always about physical height?
No, it can have metaphorical meanings.
Can 'tall' imply exaggeration?
Yes, particularly in expressions like 'tall tales.'
Is 'tall' used in sports terminology?
Yes, often to describe athletes with greater height.
Can 'short' imply brevity in communication?
Yes, like a 'short reply.'
Can 'short' and 'tall' be subjective?
Yes, perceptions of these terms vary.
Are there synonyms for 'short' and 'tall'?
Yes, like 'petite' for short or 'lofty' for tall.
Do 'short' and 'tall' have cultural variations in meaning?
Yes, perceptions can vary across cultures.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
