shortcut

• short cut, short-cut

From short +‎ cut.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɔːtkʌt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃoɹtˌkʌt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈʃoːt.kat/, [ˈʃoːʔ.kat], [ˈʃoːʔ.kaʔ]
• Hyphenation: short‧cut

shortcut (plural shortcuts)

1. A path between two points that is faster than the commonly used paths.
2. A method to accomplish something that omits one or more steps.
   • 2021 November 3, “Network News: EMR changes claims process”, in RAIL, number 943, page 15:

     East Midlands Railway is introducing new shortcuts for claiming compensation in the event of late-running services.

3. (computing, in the Microsoft family of operating systems) A file that points to the location of another file and serves as a quick way to access it.

   There are shortcuts to some of my favourite applications on my desktop.

4. (computing) Short for keyboard shortcut.

• shortcut on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

shortcut (third-person singular simple present shortcuts, present participle shortcutting, simple past and past participle shortcutted or shortcut)

1. To take or use a shortcut

• shortcutter

• cut short