summary

[ suhm-uh-ree ]
See synonyms for: summarysummaries on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural sum·ma·ries.
  1. a comprehensive and usually brief abstract, recapitulation, or compendium of previously stated facts or statements.

adjective
  1. brief and comprehensive; concise.

  2. direct and prompt; unceremoniously fast: to treat someone with summary dispatch.

  1. (of legal proceedings, jurisdiction, etc.) conducted without, or exempt from, the various steps and delays of a formal trial.

Origin of summary

1
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin summārium, equivalent to summ(a) “sum” + -ārium noun suffix; see sum, -ary

synonym study For summary

1. Summary, brief, digest, synopsis are terms for a short version of a longer work. A summary is a brief statement or restatement of main points, especially as a conclusion to a work: a summary of a chapter. A brief is a detailed outline, by heads and subheads, of a discourse (usually legal) to be completed: a brief for an argument. A digest is an abridgment of an article, book, etc., or an organized arrangement of material under heads and titles: a digest of a popular novel; a digest of Roman law. A synopsis is usually a compressed statement of the plot of a novel, play, etc.: a synopsis of Hamlet.

word story For summary

The English noun summary comes straight from the Latin neuter noun summārium “abridgment, abstract, epitome,” an extremely rare word used only once in the surviving Latin literature by the Roman author, tragedian, statesman, and Stoic philosopher Seneca (the Younger) in one of his Moral Letters to Lucilius (39), in which he complains “…what is now commonly called a ‘breviary’ [ breviārium ] was called, in the good old days, when we used to speak Latin, a ‘summary’ [ summārium ]." (Complaints about the terrible state of the language are nothing new.)
Summārium is a compound of adjective summus “highest, topmost, top” and the noun suffix -ārium. ( Summa, the feminine of summus used as a noun, in mathematics and accounting means “sum, total”: The Romans added their numbers from the bottom up and wrote the total in summā “on the top.”)
Medieval Latin has the adjective summārius “abbreviated, summary,” which was borrowed into Middle English in the 15th century.The adjectival meaning “relating to legal proceedings conducted without certain required formalities” is recorded about 1765, though the corresponding meaning of the adverb summarily appears much earlier.

Other words for summary

Other words from summary

  • sum·mar·i·ness [suh-mair-i-nis], /səˈmɛər ɪ nɪs/, noun

Words Nearby summary

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use summary in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for summary

summary

/ (ˈsʌmərɪ) /


nounplural -maries
  1. a brief account giving the main points of something

adjective(usually prenominal)
  1. performed arbitrarily and quickly, without formality: a summary execution

  2. (of legal proceedings) short and free from the complexities and delays of a full trial

  1. summary jurisdiction the right a court has to adjudicate immediately upon some matter arising during its proceedings

  2. giving the gist or essence

Origin of summary

1
C15: from Latin summārium, from summa sum 1

Derived forms of summary

  • summarily, adverb
  • summariness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012