briefly

adverb

brief·​ly ˈbrē-flē 

1

a

: in a brief way

briefly mentioned

b

: in brief

the food, briefly, was awful

2

: for a short time

briefly married

Synonyms of briefly

• concisely
• shortly

Examples of briefly in a Sentence

Several important issues are only briefly mentioned.

Please briefly describe your experience.

We briefly considered canceling the trip.

Recent Examples on the Web

Stammen and Souza were teammates on the Nationals briefly in 2014, which was Souza’s first year in the major leagues. —Kevin Acee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Nov. 2025

Fuentes’ fans hated Kirk so much that, briefly after Kirk’s murder, it was assumed his killer was a groyper themself. —Ryan Broderick, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2025

Powell initially tweaked the groin early in Friday’s win over the Bulls in Chicago, briefly exiting the contest with what the Heat labeled as a left groin strain before returning to finish that game. —Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 24 Nov. 2025

In early 2021, an army of retail traders made massive bets on meme stocks and briefly melted down the market. —Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 24 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for briefly

• chiefly