Other forms: shortcuts
A shortcut is the quicker way. The path worn across the grass instead of round two sides of the square, the alley the local children use, the gap in the hedge behind the bus stop.
You take a shortcut; you do not make one or do one. On a computer the word holds two jobs: the icon on your desktop that opens a program, and the key combination that saves you a trip to the menu, which is a keyboard shortcut. Used about work it carries a warning — taking shortcuts means skipping steps you should not have skipped, and there are no shortcuts is what people say about learning a language or getting fit. Written as two words, short cut, it means the same and reads a little old-fashioned, except at the hairdresser, where a short cut is a haircut.
1nounshortcutA route that is quicker than the usual one.~43%
“There is a shortcut through the churchyard.”
2nounleavingA quicker way of doing something, got by leaving a step out.~14%
“There are no shortcuts to learning a language.”
3nouncomputerOn a computer, an icon that opens a file or a program, or a key combination that does a job in one press.~43%
“Ctrl and S is the shortcut for saving.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
shortcut is a route.
Also accepted in games: short cut
From short + cut.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA