Using standard house wiring as an example, there are three types of wires in a home electrical circuit:

the LINE, this is the power lead; the NEUTRAL, this is the return lead; and the GROUND, this is the safety
return lead. The power to appliances is designed to flow through the LINE and NEUTRAL leads. No
current is supposed to flow in the GROUND lead unless there is a problem with an appliance. Most
often, the GROUND and NEUTRAL leads are tied together at the main distribution panel so that these
two leads are at approximately the same voltage level.

A "short circuit" is the term used when the power conductors (LINE and NEUTRAL) have a very low
resistance path between them. Low resistance here means much lower than the design is rated to
handle. For example, a 20A, 120VAC circuit can handle a 6 ohm load as its lowest resistance. A short
circuit would be something much lower than 6 ohms.

Open circuit is quite the opposite from a short circuit and is where a current path sees nearly infinite
resistance. For the case of a wire running from a breaker to an appliance, you would expect not more
than few ohms of resistance (depening on the distance) at the very worst. There is a gray area between
a few ohms and several megohms where the division between short circuits, normal circuits, and open
circuits can overlap. There is no "EXACT" resistance to define each, it would depend on the circuit,
power levels, etc...

Ground fault is what happens when the safety GROUND wire conducts current. GFI outlets are designed
to trip open the circuit if more than about 0.005A flows in the ground path. Actually, the GFI looks at the
current flowing in the LINE and NEUTRAL and calculates the difference. If this difference is greater than
0.005A, the circuit trips open. In this way, the current could flow straight to the earth (perhaps through
a person) and the GFI would still detect a ground fault. So, actually, a ground fault happens when some
or all of the LINE current flows anywhere besides the NEUTRAL wire.