telegraphese

9.9

A short way of writing that leaves out small words like telegrams

noun
/ˌtɛlɪˈɡræfiːz/

Archaic

: telegráfico

To make communication faster, she often used telegraphese, eliminating all unnecessary words.

Examples

His message was written in a form of telegraphese, with only the most essential details included.
It sounds like you have an interesting question, but your telegraphese is much too dense for me to puzzle out.

Blog text (11)
The report was so concise that it resembled telegraphese, leaving out everything except the crucial facts.

Synonyms

conciseness

vstelegraphese

1 5.5

Saying something clearly with few words

is more extreme removing connecting words to save space

terseness

vstelegraphese

1 6.7

Saying a lot with very few words

is more extreme and omits many small linking words

succinctness

vstelegraphese

1 6.3

The quality of expressing ideas clearly using few words

is more extreme leaving out extra words for tight economy

laconism

vstelegraphese

Formal

9.9

To say or write something using very few words

is more extreme leaving out small words to shorten messages

How Concise

telegraphese

Archaic

9.9

terseness

1 6.7

brevity

14 5.3

conciseness

1 5.5

Surface Forms

telegraphese singular

telegrapheses plural

Morphology

telegraphese = telegraph (transparent) = telegraph + ese

Formed directly from 'telegraph' + the productive suffix '-ese' meaning 'style or language of', so the meaning is predictable for learners familiar with those parts.

Etymology

The word telegraphese comes from telegraph, which means 'writing over a long distance', plus the ending -ese (like in Chinese) that marks a 'language' or style. Because old telegrams were charged by the word, people left out small words to save money and space, so telegraphese means a very short, spare way of writing.