shortening

American  

[shawrt-ning, shawr-tn-ing] / ˈʃɔrt nɪŋ, ˈʃɔr tn ɪŋ /

noun

1. butter, lard, or other fat, used to make pastry, bread, etc., short.

2. Phonetics. the act, process, or an instance of making or becoming short.

3. Linguistics.

   1. the act or process of dropping one or more syllables from a word or phrase to form a shorter word with the same meaning, as in forming piano from pianoforte or phone from telephone.

   2. clipped form.

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shortening British  

/ ˈʃɔːtənɪŋ /

noun

1. butter, lard, or other fat, used in a dough, cake mixture, etc, to make the mixture short

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Etymology

Origin of shortening

First recorded in 1535–45; shorten + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

"AI transforms a 'needle-in-a-haystack' search into a data-driven selection process, drastically shortening the timeframe between diagnosis and vaccine construction," he said.

From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026

I also tried shortening my days to seven hours instead of 10.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 25, 2026

Rain is forecast for Sunday's first day, possibly shortening the Test and limiting the impact spin could have.

From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026

The NFL currently isn’t allowed to communicate with them from the Super Bowl to the middle of May, and it believes shortening that dead period could allow for more rules discussions and training.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025

The recipe was guaranteed not to fail by the company which made the shortening.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck