terser; tersest
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
Jones saw what Tannenbaum said and offered a terse two-word response.
—Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 19 Feb. 2026
The company’s terse post on X did not say if Denver employees would be relocated to Florida or if any functions will remain in the Colorado capital.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2026
Her high-school senior daughter Josie (Chloe East) is terse and uncommunicative with her, angry about how much space her mother’s drama has taken up in everyone else’s life.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 Feb. 2026
Lean and terse and driven more by anxiety than incident, Van Dusen’s script doesn’t go in for surprises or conventionally developing tension, not least since the film’s prologue has already shown us where it’s all apocalyptically headed.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 13 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for terse
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Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 19 Feb. 2026
The company’s terse post on X did not say if Denver employees would be relocated to Florida or if any functions will remain in the Colorado capital.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2026
Her high-school senior daughter Josie (Chloe East) is terse and uncommunicative with her, angry about how much space her mother’s drama has taken up in everyone else’s life.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 Feb. 2026
Lean and terse and driven more by anxiety than incident, Van Dusen’s script doesn’t go in for surprises or conventionally developing tension, not least since the film’s prologue has already shown us where it’s all apocalyptically headed.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 13 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for terse
Cite this Entry
“Terse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terse. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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