Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Brief and to the point; effectively concise: a terse one-word answer.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wiped; rubbed; appearing as if wiped or rubbed; smooth.
- Refined; accomplished; polished: said of persons.
- Free from superfluity; neatly or elegantly compact or concise; neat; concise.
- n. See terce.
Wiktionary
- adj. Polished, burnished; smooth; fine, neat, spruce.
- adj. Brief, concise, to the point.
- adj. Abruptly or brusquely short.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth; polished.
- adj. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons.
- adj. Elegantly concise; free of superfluous words; polished to smoothness.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. brief and to the point; effectively cut short
Etymologies
- Latin tersus, past participle of tergēre, to cleanse.
Examples
“Ms. Diallo's lawyers received what one of them called a "terse" letter Friday inviting her to meet with prosecutors at 3 p.m. to discuss what will happen in court Tuesday.”
“The one that was bolded and written in terse sentence fractions, of course, is not.”
“And terse is right your elitist definition of success ignore many middle and lower class successful individuals.”
“Hence, even when I tell the truth, my speech patterns are pretty set in this way and I speak in short, terse responses and evasive answers.”
Catch Phrases That May Tip You Off To A Lie | Lifehacker Australia
“Many people can fully promote their articles in short, terse, one-sentence descriptions.”
OpEdNews - Diary: Help OEN Re-Design Our Front Page and Beyond
“Told in terse sentences that can read like stanzas of poetry ... this brief but powerful book is unforgettable.”
Timothy: Summary and book reviews of Timothy by Verlyn Klinkenborg.
“Being terse is not a sign of being a better communicator, but it is often a sign of not having any original thoughts …”
“His tidings were given slowly in short, terse sentences.”
“Back home in Glassboro a week later, Bob Thomas called the airport manager and left her what he calls a terse message.”
“The study notification arrived Friday in what some family members call a terse form letter from the city telling them their loved one's voice had been identified in the 911 system.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘terse’.
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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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dameaning's list
negotiable
hegemony
stalagmite
wont
rasp
riddle
somnambulist
librocubicularisttertiary, constancy, acumen, tinder, confluence, insular, partiality, terse, vanguard, avant guard, irrascible, inverse and 27 more...
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Words to make you sound smart
duality, hence, inference, deduce, juxtapose, mundane, gregarious, plight, esoteric, austere, encompass, subsidize and 17 more...
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barrys favs...
These are the words which are used in a normal conversation...
ambivert, precarious, intriguing, intricacy, pivotal, cognizance, hindsight, back out, cliche, niche, chicane, trivial and 7 more...
elfflame See laconic. Dec 18, 2007