succinctly
Americanadverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of succinctly
Explanation
To say something succinctly is to say it briefly, fitting your points into one concise statement. It's a talent rarely enjoyed and much appreciated. You succinctly stated your case and sat down to great applause, not to mention great relief. The adverb succinctly derives from the Latin succinctus,"to gird from below, or gather up one's clothes." It referred to gathering together loose clothing and cinching it with a belt. Speaking succinctly reduces the volume of a speech to the main idea, like a belt might reduce the visual volume of an outfit. If your audience seems to be drowning in a pile of verbal fabric, you need to speak more succinctly.
Vocabulary lists containing succinctly
And Then There Were None
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Little Fires Everywhere
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 9
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Musk boiled down his legal team’s main argument succinctly on the stand: “It’s not OK to steal a charity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
Equally succinctly, a former frontbencher declared West's intervention to be "bonkers".
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
Mangione’s reasons succinctly reflect a society where consistently reliable healthcare is a virtual impossibility without millions of dollars at your disposal.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
Morningstar’s most recent annual “Mind the Gap” External link report puts it more succinctly: the more investors trade, the less they actually make.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
He asked about her relationships with all of us, to which she responded succinctly that while Maud was her employer, each of us kids was like family to her.
From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson
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.
