in a word
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The results were, in a word, startling: 1 in 7 of the children in the no-peanuts group developed an allergy by age 5, compared to just 1 in 50 in the peanut group.
From Slate • Dec. 3, 2025
He always appreciates when golfers offer to put in a word for him, though he worries such referrals don’t always break through the labyrinth of automation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 26, 2025
You can sum it up in a word: Reform.
From BBC • Sep. 15, 2025
The answer is, in a word, Reconstruction — rather, the fact that Lincoln's death ensured it would fail before its full promise would be realized.
From Salon • Apr. 15, 2024
Wretched, in a word, because she had behaved as any healthy and virtuous English girl ought to behave and not in some other, abnormal, extraordinary way.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
