as in concision
the quality or state of being marked by or using only few words to convey much meaning
the terseness of my replies simply meant that I was too busy to talk at that time
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Recent Examples of terseness
The rapidity and the terseness of the onscreen action leaps from scene to scene, from event to event, from one salient point to the next, with nothing incidental in between, nothing revealing anything besides what directly elucidates the story as Polanski chooses to tell it.
—
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for terseness
Noun
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This conversation has been edited and condensed for concision and clarity.—
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The conversation has been edited for clarity and concision.—
Noun
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The interview was edited for clarity and conciseness.—
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The transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.—
Noun
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Luzzatto said the relative shortness of that term is scaring away capital.—
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February was deemed an appropriate time for a special observance of Black history not because of the shortness of the month, but instead to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation.—
Cite this Entry
“Terseness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/terseness. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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