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.
Shorthand help: Baryshnikov as in Mikhail, the transcendent Russian dancer.
From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2018
Is your title, “Are We Not Men?,” a reference to H. G. Wells’s “The Island of Dr. Moreau”? Shorthand for the perils of genetic manipulation?
From The New Yorker • Oct. 31, 2016
Shorthand is a method of quickly writing down information.
From BBC • Jan. 15, 2016
Shorthand for both embarrassing dad and Russian falling for America’s charms.
From The Guardian • May 27, 2013
Shorthand terms are unobjectionable, indeed indispensable, when a term has become entrenched in the community one is writing for.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
