practice vs shortcut

practice

noun
  • Actual operation or experiment, in contrast to theory. 

  • A customary action, habit, or behaviour; a manner or routine. 

  • The ongoing pursuit of a craft or profession, particularly in medicine or the fine arts. 

  • A place where a professional service is provided, such as a general practice. 

  • The observance of religious duties that a church requires of its members. 

  • An organized event for the purpose of performing such repetition. 

  • The form, manner, and order of conducting and carrying on suits and prosecutions through their various stages, according to the principles of law and the rules laid down by the courts. 

  • Skilful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; stratagem; artifice. 

  • Repetition of an activity to improve a skill. 

  • A easy and concise method of applying the rules of arithmetic to questions which occur in trade and business. 

shortcut

noun
  • A method to accomplish something that omits one or more steps. 

  • A keyboard shortcut: a combination of keystrokes that provides easier access to a command or operation. 

  • A path between two points that is faster than the commonly used paths. 

  • A file that points to the location of another file and serves as a quick way to access it. 

verb
  • To take or use a shortcut 

How often have the words practice and shortcut occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )