short i noun2 •The vowel sound /ɪ/, as in the words pit and stick. (The presence of a short vowel is sometimes signaled in spelling by the doubling of a consonant after it, such as in sitting as contrasted with siting.) •The name of the letter й/Й in Cyrillic alphabets.When the Cyrillic "short i" [y] precedes the omitted fragment, the next consonant should not be dropped: for example, kaliynyy [potassium] = kaliyn., liteynyy [foundry] = liteyn. — 1988 formsshort i's