absence vs shortness

absence

noun
  • Lack; deficiency; nonexistence. 

  • A state of being away or withdrawn from a place or from companionship 

  • The period of someone being away. 

  • Temporary loss or disruption of consciousness, with sudden onset and recovery, and common in epilepsy. 

  • Lack of contact between blades. 

  • Failure to be present where one is expected, wanted, or needed; nonattendance; deficiency. 

  • Inattention to things present; abstraction (of mind). 

shortness

noun
  • The result or product of being short. 

  • The property of being short or terse. 

  • The property of being short, of being small of stature or brief. 

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