concise

American  

[kuhn-sahys] / kənˈsaɪs /

adjective

1. expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope; succinct; terse.

   a concise explanation of the company's retirement plan.

   Synonyms:

   laconic, compendious, pithy

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concise British  

/ kənˈsaɪs /

adjective

1. expressing much in few words; brief and to the point

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Related Words

Concise, succinct, terse all refer to speech or writing that uses few words to say much. Concise usually implies that unnecessary details or verbiage have been eliminated from a more wordy statement: a concise summary of the speech. Succinct, on the other hand, implies that the message is as originally composed and is expressed in as few words as possible: a succinct statement of the problem. Terse sometimes suggests brevity combined with wit or polish to produce particularly effective expression: a terse, almost aphoristic, style. It may also suggest brusqueness or curtness: a terse reply that was almost rude.

Other Word Forms

• concisely
  adverb
• conciseness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of concise

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin concīsus “cut short” (past participle of concīdere ), equivalent to con- con- + -cīd- (combining form of caedere “to cut”) + -tus past participle ending

Explanation

If something is concise, it's short and gets right to the point. A concise edition of your diary might be 50 pages of the most important entries. Concise comes from the Latin word concidere, which means "to cut down." When we use concise, we're talking about words that have been cut down. There are no concise trees, but there are concise works of political philosophy. A concise Italian-English dictionary, is shorter than an unabridged one. If you're good at quick explanations, you have a concise manner. A good synonym is succinct.

Example Sentences

Mr. Henderson is a research fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and editor of the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 13, 2025

Concise story even more succinct: Despite their 3-2 loss to the White Sox Monday, the M’s have been straight fire since their season looked most dire.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 5, 2022

Concise and evocative as a haiku, it runs only 25 minutes, and the songs, including “You’re a Mean One,” became instant classics.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2020

Concise biography from the people at the Hubble Space Telescope.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

Concise biography of composers, teachers, artists, and all other musical workers, containing 5,000 names.

From The Mechanism of the Human Voice by Behnke, Emil

Related Words

• pithy
• succinct
• terse