pithy

pithy

adjective \ˈpi-thē\

pith·i·erpith·i·est

Definition of PITHY

1

: consisting of or abounding in pith(see ¹pith)

2

: having substance and point : tersely cogent

— pith·i·ly \ˈpi-thə-lē\ adverb

— pith·i·ness \ˈpi-thē-nəs\ noun

Examples of PITHY

1. The critic gave the film a pithy review.
2. The book is filled with pithy sayings about love and loss.
3. a pithy little Mother's Day card
4. … Gore's prowess had been blurred by his performance in the Quayle debate and by his four preceding years in the Senate, where the prevailing style is indirect and woolly-swathed in layers of “my distinguished colleague” and short on zingers and pithy remarks. —James Fallows, Atlantic, July 2000
5. I read my poems in L.A., chatted up the literary set, waxed pithy and beleaguered at the book signings and wine and cheese receptions. —Thomas Lynch, The Undertaking, 1997
6. He does not hold forth to his family or to his court of old men; he listens, … then delivers short, pithy edicts that are then followed. —Guy Martin, Esquire, June 1997
7. Unlike a great many other science books, the pithy, lyrical text never bogs down in a mudflat of facts. —Leonard S. Marcus, Parenting, December/January 1996

Origin of PITHY

(see ¹pith)

First Known Use: 1562

Related to PITHY

Synonyms

aphoristic, apothegmatic, brief, capsule, compact, compendious, crisp, curt, elliptical (or elliptic), epigrammatic, laconic, monosyllabic, concise, sententious, succinct, summary, telegraphic, terse, thumbnail

Antonyms

circuitous, circumlocutory, diffuse, long-winded, prolix, rambling, verbose, windy, wordy

Related Words

abrupt, blunt, brusque (also brusk), short, snippety, snippy; abbreviated, abridged, condensed, curtailed, shortened; meaty, substantial; meaningful, significant; well-turned

Near Antonyms

pleonastic, redundant, repetitious, tautological, tautologous; enlarged, expanded, supplemented; embellished, embroidered, exaggerated, inflated

See Synonym Discussion at concise

Other Botany Terms

annual, burgeon, chloroplast, nomenclature, succulent, sylvan, xylem

Rhymes with PITHY

mythy, withy