Spend five minutes online and you'll realize that people can't seem to agree on what counts as "short" for a man.
Some insist 5'8" is perfectly average, while others argue that anything under 5'10" already feels short.
The debate pops up everywhere from Reddit threads to TikTok videos, especially whenever fans discover that one of Hollywood's biggest stars isn't as tall as they imagined.
Thanks to camera tricks, carefully chosen angles, and clever styling, many actors appear much taller on screen than they actually are.
One Reddit user, who stands at 5'8", admitted they had heard everything from "that's short" to "it's the global average," adding that they only ever felt short when standing next to someone over six feet tall.
The question sparked hundreds of replies.
One commenter wrote, "To me short is 5'6 and below. People treat 5'8 and 5'9 as just average and regular." Another disagreed, saying, "5'10 is the low point of tall."
Someone else added, "In the Asian world, 5'8 is good. For the white world, 5'10 is still short."
The comments showed there is no universal answer because people's opinions often depend on where they live and who they compare themselves to.
Experts, however, paint a slightly different picture.
According to Health data, the average adult man in the United States is around 5 feet 9 inches, while the global average is closer to 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 8 inches.
Researchers also noted that height varies widely between countries because of genetics, nutrition, healthcare, and socioeconomic conditions, meaning someone considered "short" in one country may be completely average in another.
Hollywood, meanwhile, has spent decades blurring those lines.
Clever camera angles, platform shoes, and strategic casting have helped actors look much taller than they really are. That's why many fans are shocked to discover that some of the biggest action stars, superheroes, and leading men are well under six feet tall.
Kevin Hart has even joked about embracing his height, saying, "This is what I was given... I'm going to embrace mine."
For this list, we're using 5'8" or shorter as our benchmark, not because science says that's officially "short," but because it's the height that repeatedly came up in online discussions as the point where people begin debating whether a man is short or simply average.
Whatever side of the debate you fall on, these famous men prove that confidence, talent, and screen presence have never been measured with a tape measure.
