Short filler is chopped leaf: pieces cut for this purpose and trimmings left over from making long filler cigars. It packs easily into a machine or mold and wastes less leaf. It burns faster and drops loose pieces more easily than a well-made long-filler bunch.
Most fully machine-made cigars use short filler, often with homogenized tobacco leaf as the binder or wrapper. Some hand-rolled value lines use it as well. Compare mixed filler. Chapter: handmade vs machine-made.