terser; tersest
1
: using few words : devoid of superfluity
a terse summary
2
: smoothly elegant : polished
tersely
adverb
terseness
noun
Examples of terse in a Sentence
Everything about him is tidy, from his terse wit to the flecks of gray hair that fall in precise iterations around the edges of his scalp.
—
Devin Gordon, Newsweek, 29 July 2002
… Johnston stays bolted to the wheelhouse floor, wrestling the helm and jotting down notes in the ship log. His entries are terse, bullet descriptions of the unending chaos outside.
—Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm, 1997
This vicious cycle was captured succinctly in Gandhi's terse warning that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
—David McCabe, Commonweal, 11 Apr. 1997
She accepts the caller's terse expression of sympathy and duly expresses in return her appreciation for that unenviable bit of message-bearing.
—John Barth, Harper's, January 1994
She gave me a few terse instructions and promptly left the room.
could tell from his terse replies to my questions that he was in no mood to talk
Devin Gordon, Newsweek, 29 July 2002
… Johnston stays bolted to the wheelhouse floor, wrestling the helm and jotting down notes in the ship log. His entries are terse, bullet descriptions of the unending chaos outside.
—Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm, 1997
This vicious cycle was captured succinctly in Gandhi's terse warning that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
—David McCabe, Commonweal, 11 Apr. 1997
She accepts the caller's terse expression of sympathy and duly expresses in return her appreciation for that unenviable bit of message-bearing.
—John Barth, Harper's, January 1994
She gave me a few terse instructions and promptly left the room.
could tell from his terse replies to my questions that he was in no mood to talk
Recent Examples on the Web
Gathegi endows a handful of terse phrases with an especially large dose of attitude.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 July 2025
At the front of the car, a pair of illuminated slivers serve as headlights, and a terse black mouth—patterned with less-than (<) and greater-than (>) signs—appears to jeer mercilessly.
—Brett Berk, Robb Report, 8 July 2025
Under terse questioning by the judge, Nunez-Vasquez's lawyer explained she's made several attempts to reach the Executive Office for Immigration Review to remedy this issue.
—Noe Padilla, IndyStar, 2 July 2025
Plus, billions of dollars are spent on unnecessary tests—contributing to rising national health care costs and exacerbating terse relations between hospitals and insurance companies.
—Alexis Kayser, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for terse
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Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 July 2025
At the front of the car, a pair of illuminated slivers serve as headlights, and a terse black mouth—patterned with less-than (<) and greater-than (>) signs—appears to jeer mercilessly.
—Brett Berk, Robb Report, 8 July 2025
Under terse questioning by the judge, Nunez-Vasquez's lawyer explained she's made several attempts to reach the Executive Office for Immigration Review to remedy this issue.
—Noe Padilla, IndyStar, 2 July 2025
Plus, billions of dollars are spent on unnecessary tests—contributing to rising national health care costs and exacerbating terse relations between hospitals and insurance companies.
—Alexis Kayser, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for terse
Cite this Entry
“Terse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terse. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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