concision

American  

[kuhn-sizh-uhn] / kənˈsɪʒ ən /

noun

1. concise quality; brevity; terseness.

2. Archaic. a cutting up or off; mutilation.

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concision British  

/ kənˈsɪʒən /

noun

1. the quality of being concise; brevity; terseness

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Other Word Forms

• nonconcision
  noun

Etymology

Origin of concision

1350–1400; Middle English (< Middle French ) < Latin concīsiōn- (stem of concīsiō ), equivalent to concīs ( us ) concise + -iōn- -ion

Explanation

The noun concision means briefness or brevity. If it's taken you only two minutes to describe all nine seasons of your favorite TV show, you've done it with concision. In the 1500s, concision meant "a cutting away" or "a mutilation," from the Latin concidere, "to cut off or cut to pieces." For some wordy writers, an editor's emphasis on concision (cutting out extra words) might feel as violent as that, but really it's simply a matter of becoming more concise, or short and to the point.

Example Sentences

Its orotund prose certainly differs from the lean muscularity of the Second Inaugural or the elegiac concision of the Gettysburg Address.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 7, 2025

These conversations have been edited for clarity and concision.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 26, 2023

Straight news delivered with concision and insightful analysis still has value and theoretically, is what the audience wants.

From Salon • Aug. 17, 2023

But it took a string of uneven albums, full of amorphous studio jams, before the relative concision and clarity of “Dark Side” came into focus.

From New York Times • Feb. 28, 2023

The superb Virgilian economy is the thing for an epic poet now; the concision, the scrupulousness, the loading of every word with something appreciable of the whole significance.

From The Epic An Essay by Abercrombie, Lascelles