short-staffed

IPA/ˌʃɔːt ˈstɑːft/
IPA/ˌʃɔːrt ˈstæft/

short-staffed — adjective

1. not having enough workers or employees to do all the work that needs to be done

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

not having enough workers or employees to do all the work that needs to be done — for example, a restaurant where the cooks and waiters together are too few to serve all the customers, or a hospital ward that cannot give proper care because nurses are missing.

Example

The hospital ward was short-staffed last night, so the nurses worked double shifts.

be + short-staffed (predicative)

Paloma struggled to keep the café running during the busy lunch hour because she was short-staffed.

feel / be short-staffed (reason clause)

Common collocations
  • chronically short-staffed
  • severely short-staffed
  • constantly short-staffed
  • short-staffed department
  • short-staffed ward
  • short-staffed team
  • short-staffed office
  • short-staffed kitchen
Synonyms
  • understaffed

    more formal; the standard term in official reports and business writing

  • short-handed

    more casual; also implies a shortage of helpers or physical workers rather than professional staff

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

be + short-staffed

remain + short-staffed

feel + short-staffed

short-staffed + noun

Usage Note

Used almost exclusively in workplace or service contexts. The word is commonly found in predicative position (be short-staffed, feel short-staffed) but also occurs attributively before nouns describing organizations or teams.

Common Mistakes

The company is short-staffing this month.
The company is short-staffed this month.
short-staffed is an adjective, not a verb; do not add -ing.
We are short of staff.' (intended meaning: not enough workers)
We are short-staffed.
'short of staff' is also correct, but 'short-staffed' is the single compound adjective; the two forms are not interchangeable in all sentence positions.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Short-staffed, understaffed, and short-handed all describe a workplace where there are not enough workers. Understaffed is the most neutral and formal option, common in official reports and business communication ('the department is understaffed by 20%'). Short-staffed is the everyday alternative, used in conversation and less formal writing. Short-handed is more casual and sometimes suggests a shortage of helpers for a specific physical task ('they are short-handed in the kitchen tonight'). Under-manned is an older term that is now widely avoided because it assumes a male workforce. In most daily situations short-staffed and understaffed can be used interchangeably, but short-staffed sounds more natural in spoken English.

understaffed ↗short-handedunder-manned

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • chronically short-staffed
  • constantly short-staffed
  • badly short-staffed

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Short-staffed is a compound formed in the 20th century from the adjective 'short' (meaning 'not enough') and the past participle 'staffed' (from the noun 'staff', meaning a group of employees). The noun 'staff' developed this 'workforce' sense in the 18th century, and the compound 'short-staffed' became common in business and healthcare contexts during the mid-1900s as organisations grew more conscious of staffing levels.