Shorten

How to spell shorten

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce shorten

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shorten mean?

1. verbTo make something shorter in length, duration, or extent.

Shorten in a sentence

• The tailor offered to shorten the trousers by two inches.

• We can shorten the meeting if everyone arrives on time.

Where does shorten come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English adjective 'short', which comes from the Old English 'sceort', meaning 'not long' or 'cut off', a word with deep Germanic roots also tied to ideas of cutting and trimming. To it English added the suffix '-en', the same productive ending that turns adjectives into verbs of making, as in 'harden', 'widen', and 'sweeten'. That suffix descends from an Old English verb-forming element, so 'shorten' literally means 'to make short'. The verb form appears in the language from around the 1500s, replacing an older usage in which 'short' itself could serve as a verb. Because the spelling simply stacks 'short' and '-en' with no hidden letters, the only thing a writer must remember is that the final syllable is the standard '-en' ending rather than the '-on' that the unstressed schwa sound might tempt.

How the word is built

• short (from Old English sceort: not long)
• -en (verb-forming suffix meaning 'to make')