so what is short for list? Because it says (list)

Answer 1

x = 'abc'
y = list(x)

print(x) = 'abc'
print(y) = ['a', 'b', 'c']

Answer 2

one of the use that this function:
x= "i learn python"
print(list(x))
out put is:
['i', ' ', 'l', 'e' ,' r', 'n', ' ' , 'p' ,'y' ,'t' ,'h' ,'o' ,'n']