Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Precisely meaningful; forceful and brief: a pithy comment.
- adj. Consisting of or resembling pith.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of the nature of or full of pith; containing or abounding with pith: as, a pithy stem; a pithy substance.
- Full of pith or force; forcible; containing much in a concentrated or dense form; of style, sententious: as, a pithy saying or expression.
- Given to the use of pithy or forcible expressions.
- Synonyms and Terse, laconic, concise, pointed, sententious.
Wiktionary
- adj. Concise and meaningful.
- adj. Of, like, or abounding in pith.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Consisting wholly, or in part, of pith; abounding in pith
- adj. Having nervous energy; forceful; cogent.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. concise and full of meaning
Etymologies
- pith + -y (Wiktionary)
Examples
“After all, men prefer to "blink," a term I picked up from Dell Global Marketing VP Andy Lark, who himself loves to blog in short, pithy sentences.”
Who Gives A Tweet? Mommybloggers Do. - Jory Des Jardins - MediaBizBloggers
“But I have to remember that, as addicting as it is to deal in pithy statements, editors seem to like things that are longer, and longer works require more effort.”
“His blazing contempt for people is couched in pithy, derivative “wit” and helpful pointers on how they could and should be more like him.”
“This pithy is word is gleaned from World Wide Words.”
“Now you can follow my adventures on and off the beach in short, pithy, bursts.”
“Comments seelight, i am so glad that you're taxonomizing your language peeves! and i agree with much of what you say, even if it means that i've now re-written this little comment some eight times or howevermany already. but i've got to respond to your post on pithy, which was not so, um, pithy. pithy is a great word, because it specifically means "a maximum of effect from a minimum of words.”
“He excels in short, pithy work at the hard-science end of the spectrum.”
“He talked quite a bit about the perceived value of a bullet point and the meaningfulness, or lack of meaning contained in short pithy statements, illustrating his points with sample Power Point slides from Bible sites and marriage counseling sites.”
“The City is always coining pithy little epigrams like this.”
“City is always coining pithy little epigrams like this.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pithy’.
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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March 2012
panache, evanescent, erogenous, vestibule, malfeasance, lacuna, blithering, incubate, breech, tabernacle, pearly, upholstery and 79 more...
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Previous GRE
churlish, martinet, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, hack, dissimilitude, whit, histrionics, prevarication, pithy, aphorism and 16 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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Adjectives
IMPRESSIVE GROWTH..., outstanding growth, significant growth, ailing, humble, reluctant, pithy, crony, tertiary, transparent, significant
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Vocab to Learn
philander, affidavit, ambrosia, niggardly, insipid, sedulous, pithy, felicity, lurid, indolent, ponderous, hirsute and 2 more...
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To Be or Not To Be
Words to live by (or not)
prescient, polyglot, fatuous, phlegmatic, mendacious, pithy, philistine, perspicacious, epicure, ebullient, probity, profligate and 9 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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apple article
pithy, wag, penchant, revamp, put on the stand, crony, bonanza, tertiary education, incumbent, unduly = чрезмерно, cash hoard = нали..., to be reluctant =... and 37 more...
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Words For Novel
viridity, effigy, paragon, congested, acrid, lilting, clandestine, plethora, accolade, sardonic, naïve, reckoning and 285 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pithy.
dailyword I had this word as a Word Of The Day once. Jun 13, 2012
plethora Ha! Mar 22, 2009
sionnach Oh that bilby. Alwayth tho full of pith and vinegar! Mar 22, 2009
plethora I don't think I've ever heard it used like that, b. Mar 22, 2009
bilby I use pithy in exactly the opposite sense of WordNet's definition. Pithy is practically devoid of meaning, in the way the pith of a fruit is devoid of flavour and usually not particularly edible. Mar 22, 2009
oroboros See lisp for more. May 18, 2007
seanahan This is what pissy sounds like with a lisp. Mar 3, 2007