terse

[turs] / tɜrs /

ADJECTIVE

brief, short

Synonyms

STRONGEST

brusque concise cryptic curt elliptical incisive laconic pithy precise succinct trenchant

WEAK

abrupt aphoristic boiled down breviloquent clear-cut clipped close compact compendiary compendious condensed crisp cut to the bone epigrammatic exact gnomic in a nutshell lean neat pointed sententious short and sweet snappy summary taut to the point

Antonyms

STRONGEST

gentle kind lengthy long-winded nice polite verbose wordy

WEAK

prolix

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Its sublime sweeping curve is the terse expression of a complex thought.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 27, 2026

US President Donald Trump on one occasion held a terse phone call with Netanyahu, in which he reportedly uttered an expletive.

From BBC • Jun. 26, 2026

Instead of consulting, DHS sent a single terse email to the State Department, which did not even cover the topic of a country’s safety and instead asked about any general “foreign policy concerns.”

From Slate • Jun. 25, 2026

The next day, Greenspan issued a terse statement that the Fed was ready to serve as “a source of liquidity” to markets.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 22, 2026

The New England states use a terse form of instruction, a tight-lipped, laconic style sheet, wasting no words and few letters.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Vocabulary lists containing terse

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