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
Stylistically, the book becomes a motley, contaminated thing, a mix of Crews’s many modes—chatty, terse, demotic, detached, priapic, noirish, gnomic.
—Charlie Lee, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025
Trump also offered a terse response to Khamenei’s refusal to heed to his call for Iran to submit to an unconditional surrender.
—Joseph Krauss, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2025
In a terse order that offered no reasoning, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled 2-1 against Menendez.
—Ella Lee, The Hill, 11 June 2025
This Fall Joe Biden Didn't Seem To Recognize George Clooney At 2024 Los Angeles Fundraiser, New Book Details
The CPB sued after the three board members received terse emails last month informing them that their positions were being terminated.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 14 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for terse
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Charlie Lee, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025
Trump also offered a terse response to Khamenei’s refusal to heed to his call for Iran to submit to an unconditional surrender.
—Joseph Krauss, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2025
In a terse order that offered no reasoning, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled 2-1 against Menendez.
—Ella Lee, The Hill, 11 June 2025
This Fall Joe Biden Didn't Seem To Recognize George Clooney At 2024 Los Angeles Fundraiser, New Book Details
The CPB sued after the three board members received terse emails last month informing them that their positions were being terminated.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 14 May 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 10 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share