terser; tersest
1
: using few words : devoid of superfluity
a terse summary
2
: smoothly elegant : polished
tersely
adverb
terseness
noun
Synonyms
Examples of terse in a Sentence
Everything about him is tidy, from his terse wit to the flecks of gray hair that fall in precise iterations around the edges of his scalp.
—
Devin Gordon, Newsweek, 29 July 2002
… Johnston stays bolted to the wheelhouse floor, wrestling the helm and jotting down notes in the ship log. His entries are terse, bullet descriptions of the unending chaos outside.
—Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm, 1997
This vicious cycle was captured succinctly in Gandhi's terse warning that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
—David McCabe, Commonweal, 11 Apr. 1997
She accepts the caller's terse expression of sympathy and duly expresses in return her appreciation for that unenviable bit of message-bearing.
—John Barth, Harper's, January 1994
She gave me a few terse instructions and promptly left the room.
could tell from his terse replies to my questions that he was in no mood to talk
Devin Gordon, Newsweek, 29 July 2002
… Johnston stays bolted to the wheelhouse floor, wrestling the helm and jotting down notes in the ship log. His entries are terse, bullet descriptions of the unending chaos outside.
—Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm, 1997
This vicious cycle was captured succinctly in Gandhi's terse warning that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
—David McCabe, Commonweal, 11 Apr. 1997
She accepts the caller's terse expression of sympathy and duly expresses in return her appreciation for that unenviable bit of message-bearing.
—John Barth, Harper's, January 1994
She gave me a few terse instructions and promptly left the room.
could tell from his terse replies to my questions that he was in no mood to talk
Recent Examples on the Web
In response, India’s foreign ministry issued a terse two-line statement, saying Trudeau’s deposition confirmed New Delhi’s stand that Canada had provided no evidence to support its allegations against Indian diplomats.
—Reuters, NBC News, 17 Oct. 2024
This noted, what Mother is brilliant at is showing us the rug being yanked from under her feet, again and again, in terse, breathless prose—sometimes girlishly purple, at others brusque with the idioms of the era.
—Will Self, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
As news of the attack gained traction online, censors deleted articles citing Japanese media reports, which offered more details than the terse statements from the Chinese foreign ministry and Shenzhen police.
—Junko Ogura, CNN, 19 Sep. 2024
Key Background Israel and Iran are archrivals with a history of terse relations dating back to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
—Stephen Pastis, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for terse 
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Reuters, NBC News, 17 Oct. 2024
This noted, what Mother is brilliant at is showing us the rug being yanked from under her feet, again and again, in terse, breathless prose—sometimes girlishly purple, at others brusque with the idioms of the era.
—Will Self, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
As news of the attack gained traction online, censors deleted articles citing Japanese media reports, which offered more details than the terse statements from the Chinese foreign ministry and Shenzhen police.
—Junko Ogura, CNN, 19 Sep. 2024
Key Background Israel and Iran are archrivals with a history of terse relations dating back to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
—Stephen Pastis, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for terse
Dictionary Entries Near terse
Cite this Entry
“Terse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terse. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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