terse
12
7.0
- adjective
- /tɜrs/
:
conciso
- She gave a terse reply, leaving no room for further questions.
- terse wording
- terse paragraph
- terse note
So keep your answers and thoughts terse and brief and don't show your hand to the flying monkeys.
- So keep your answers and thoughts terse and brief and don't show your hand to the flying monkeys.
- So, so I think patience, so I directors, those of us, myself included, that can be terse, you know, or, or impatient when we're hungry or tired.
- And there was, I gave a guy a a very, very terse response and I could have expanded on it more and I did no big deal.
- People who tend to be like more terse, more inclined to dunk on other people.
- And I got a kind of very kind of low key, terse, kind of nice job, Morty.
Examples
-
Most of these verses were pronounced by the diviner in terse yet poetic phrasing.
Academic text (1990) -
They keep sending me these really terse letters saying I can't borrow ever again.
-
"There was a short, terse silence on the other end of the line.
Fiction book (2001) -
But it was not our way to fuss over one another; my terse praise was enough.
Fiction book (1994) -
Some pages earlier, one finds indeed the terse assertion: "Human dignity, I feel, comes from choice."
Academic text (1993) -
The VBA code was written in a terse, straight-ahead style that was fairly easy to follow.
Academic text (2011) -
In noir, dialogue is terse and snappy and is vital for moving the story along.
Academic text (2011) -
Paramount, the company I saved from the graveyard... ...gave a terse statement to the press concerning my new infamy.
-
The patriarch, in a terse letter to Van Rossum dated November 1925, complained about the Franciscan's mission.
Academic text (2018) -
The dialogue mixes Shaw's characteristic verbal pyrotechnics with Coward's terse but suggestive style.
Academic text (2017)
Synonyms
587
2.0
Using few words or lasting only a short time
100
3.8
Speaking in a direct, plain way that can sound rude
79
5.6
Abrupt and rude in speech or behavior
18
6.7
Being short and rude in the way someone speaks
10
4.1
Short and clear with no extra words
7
7.7
Rude and very short when speaking or acting
5
8.3
Using very few words, often sounding rude
2
7.2
Using very few words in a way that seems rude
A little rude and short in the way someone speaks
Antonyms
How Brief
Surface Forms
Etymology
Terse comes from an old Latin word tersus, from tergere meaning 'to wipe' or 'to clean'. So, think of a terse reply as words wiped clean of extra detail, which is why it is short and direct.