terse
Americanadjective
-
terser,
comparative
-
tersest
superlative
-
neatly or effectively concise; brief and pithy, as language.
- Synonyms:
- compendious, epigrammatic, brief, compact, succinct
adjective
-
neatly brief and concise
-
curt; abrupt
Synonym Usage
See concise.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of terse
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin tersus, past participle of tergēre “to rub off, wipe off, clean, polish”
Explanation
Terse means brief, or using very few words. If your teacher tells you to make your writing in your essay style terse and to the point, he's saying use as few words as you can and be simple and clear. A terse reply or command may seem rude or unfriendly—but the word terse itself doesn't mean unfriendly or rude. Synonyms are succinct or concise, though these words have a more positive tone. The adjective terse is from Latin tersus "clean, neat," from tergere "to rub off, wipe, polish." Polished language is neatly concise.
Vocabulary lists containing terse
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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.
See Examples For:
Last month, the Fed released a remarkably terse statement after its June meeting, and Warsh batted away questions from reporters on the outlook for interest rates.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
In rare cases, their votes are revealed in terse indications that they grant or deny the application, or even more rarely, as an opinion.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
US President Donald Trump on one occasion held a terse phone call with Netanyahu, in which he reportedly uttered an expletive.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Instead of consulting, DHS sent a single terse email to the State Department, which did not even cover the topic of a country’s safety and instead asked about any general “foreign policy concerns.”
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
She delivers a terse speech from a raised dais, and when it comes time to take our oaths to the Empire, I only know to stand because everyone around me does.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Not exactly a warm embrace of the new Warsh Fed: terser “just the facts” statements, shorter news conferences, no forward guidance, and a no-nonsense message that there’s a new sheriff in town.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, whom I asked separately, had a terser response: “I’m gonna leave that to the medics.”
From Slate ● May 16, 2023
Some of his friends noticed a change in his writing style — a change that one scholar later described as a departure from “sustained argument and prolonged reflection” to a terser “telegram style.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2022
I vaguely thought he'd been killed off but here he is again, leaner, terser and a damn sight colder because the arch-villain has taken his parka and it's -20 in the badlands of South Dakota.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 20, 2010
What terser and clearer statement of the actual government of the Church could be given now, though more than fourteen hundred years have passed since it was written?
From Church and State as Seen in the Formation of Christendom by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies
The tersest analysis of Christie’s entry in the race has come from Christie’s target, Trump.
From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2023
A man crying also furnishes the Bible with its shortest, tersest line: “Jesus wept.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 4, 2018
During a post-debate gaggle, the tersest Gillespie got was when a reporter tried to get clarity on whether he plans to invite Trump to the state.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2017
One of the most historic presidential letters on display is also the tersest: Nixon’s resignation.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2016
The tersest and most elegant author of it is in my opinion Tibullus.
From The History of Roman Literature From the earliest period to the death of Marcus Aurelius by Charles Thomas Cruttwell
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.
