shorthand
Americannoun
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a method of rapid handwriting using simple strokes, abbreviations, or symbols that designate letters, words, or phrases (distinguished from longhand).
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a simplified or makeshift manner or system of communication.
We spoke in a kind of pidgin shorthand to overcome the language barrier.
adjective
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using or able to use shorthand.
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written in shorthand.
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of or relating to shorthand.
noun
Etymology
Origin of shorthand
Explanation
Shorthand is a way of writing quickly, using a lot of abbreviations. Reporters often use shorthand during interviews to keep up with how fast people talk. It can be hard to write as fast as people speak, and that's where shorthand comes in. Shorthand is a method of rapidly transcribing exactly what someone says using special symbols, the way a court stenographer or a newspaper reporter does. It's less common to use shorthand these days, with the availability of recording devices, but in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was standard in offices.
Vocabulary lists containing shorthand
When You Reach Me
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My Life with the Chimpanzees
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The Boy Who Dared
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And that old saw has always been a fairly decent shorthand, if only because older people tend to be the most reliable voters.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
Jamuna Paar - literally "across the Yamuna" - is shorthand for the city's eastern neighbourhoods and the subject of endless teasing over their neglected civic infrastructure.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
His nimble, stylish solo on Henry Mancini’s 1963 theme to the police-caper comedy “The Pink Panther” became cultural shorthand for an era of sly jazz panache.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
AI system parameters work like brain cells: the more a model has, the more knowledge it can store, making the count a shorthand for a model’s capabilities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Agent Harold Nye, busied himself scribbling in a shorthand notebook—a notebook already well filled with the results of a long day spent probing the accusations of Floyd Wells.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
