shorts
/ʃɔː(ɹ)ts/noun, verb
shorts is spelled S-H-O-R-T-S: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shorts means “A garment worn over the pelvic area ending above the knees, not covering the entire length of the leg, designed for warm weather or for sports” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in shorts?
| Letters | 6: S-H-O-R-T-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,347th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is shorts?
Shorts appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce shorts?
- UK /ʃɔː(ɹ)ts/
Shorts has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-shorts.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does shorts mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A garment worn over the pelvic area ending above the knees, not covering the entire length of the leg, designed for warm weather or for sports.
Jessica hated covering her legs, so she usually wore shorts.
- 2
datedUnderpants.
After a scare like that, you might need to change your shorts.
- 3
Remnants, clippings, trimmings of production processes.
- 4
The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran; pollard.
- 5
Short, inferior hemp.
- 6
plural of short
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of short
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shorts in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense leg garment:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | short |
| German | Shorts, kurze Hose |
| Portuguese | calção, short, calções, bermuda |
| Spanish | pantalón corto, pantaloneta, short, pantaloncito |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does shorts come from?
From short + -s.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).