The term used to describe the allele for shortness in this scenario is recessive.

Here's why:

* Homozygous tall parent: This parent has two copies of the dominant allele for tallness (let's represent it as "T").

* Homozygous short parent: This parent has two copies of the recessive allele for shortness (let's represent it as "t").

* Offspring: All offspring inherit one "T" allele from the tall parent and one "t" allele from the short parent, resulting in a genotype of "Tt". Since "T" is dominant, all offspring will be tall.

This demonstrates the principle of recessive inheritance. The recessive allele (t) only expresses itself when present in two copies (tt). In the "Tt" genotype, the dominant "T" allele masks the expression of the recessive "t" allele.