Short-tailed is an adjective that describes an animal or bird with a short tail. However, there are several other words that can be used instead of short-tailed, such as docked, bobbed, truncated, abbreviated, curtate, and stubby. Docked and bobbed are mainly associated with breed standards for dogs, where their tails are cut short, while truncated and abbreviated are used to describe a shortened version of something. Curtate is a scientific term that refers to a shortened body part, and stubby is an informal word that could also be used to describe a short tail. These synonyms for short-tailed can help provide more variety and specificity in writing.