short-winded

/ʃɔːtˈwɪndɪd/

//ʃɔːtˈwɪndɪd// adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"short-winded" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“short-winded” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Out of breath, gasping for air; breathing rapidly, or given to becoming short of breath.

Corpus desk

Index EN-short-winded · short-winded · English

short-winded · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for short-winded
PropertyValue
Headwordshort-winded
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/ʃɔːtˈwɪndɪd/
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “short-winded” sits in English frequency

short-windedsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

short-winded is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ʃɔːtˈwɪndɪd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for short-winded, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is short-winded, spelled S-H-O-R-T---W-I-N-D-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Out of breath, gasping for air; breathing rapidly, or given to becoming short of breath.
  2. 2
    Hasty, breathless; rushed.
  3. 3
    Concise and to the point.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how short-winded appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. it is […] what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and shortwinded elations of men.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "short-winded"?
"short-winded" is spelled S-H-O-R-T---W-I-N-D-E-D. The IPA pronunciation is /ʃɔːtˈwɪndɪd/.
What does "short-winded" mean?
As an adjective, "short-winded" means: Out of breath, gasping for air; breathing rapidly, or given to becoming short of breath.
How do you pronounce "short-winded"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "short-winded" is /ʃɔːtˈwɪndɪd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "short-winded" come from?
"short-winded" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

What to do next

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Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list