diff --git a/cmd/minikube/cmd/start_flags.go b/cmd/minikube/cmd/start_flags.go
index d954bf89c934..6c35f1090aad 100644
--- a/cmd/minikube/cmd/start_flags.go
+++ b/cmd/minikube/cmd/start_flags.go
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ func initMinikubeFlags() {
 	startCmd.Flags().Bool(preload, true, "If set, download tarball of preloaded images if available to improve start time. Defaults to true.")
 	startCmd.Flags().Bool(deleteOnFailure, false, "If set, delete the current cluster if start fails and try again. Defaults to false.")
 	startCmd.Flags().Bool(forceSystemd, false, "If set, force the container runtime to use sytemd as cgroup manager. Currently available for docker and crio. Defaults to false.")
-	startCmd.Flags().String(startOutput, "text", "Format to print stdout in. Options include: [text,json]")
+	startCmd.Flags().StringP(startOutput, "o", "text", "Format to print stdout in. Options include: [text,json]")
 }
 
 // initKubernetesFlags inits the commandline flags for Kubernetes related options
diff --git a/site/content/en/docs/commands/start.md b/site/content/en/docs/commands/start.md
index 3b6edbaac124..60e4cf57929a 100644
--- a/site/content/en/docs/commands/start.md
+++ b/site/content/en/docs/commands/start.md
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ minikube start [flags]
       --nfs-shares-root string            Where to root the NFS Shares, defaults to /nfsshares (hyperkit driver only) (default "/nfsshares")
       --no-vtx-check                      Disable checking for the availability of hardware virtualization before the vm is started (virtualbox driver only)
   -n, --nodes int                         The number of nodes to spin up. Defaults to 1. (default 1)
-      --output string                     Format to print stdout in. Options include: [text,json] (default "text")
+  -o, --output string                     Format to print stdout in. Options include: [text,json] (default "text")
       --preload                           If set, download tarball of preloaded images if available to improve start time. Defaults to true. (default true)
       --registry-mirror strings           Registry mirrors to pass to the Docker daemon
       --service-cluster-ip-range string   The CIDR to be used for service cluster IPs. (default "10.96.0.0/12")