terse
brief and to the point, sometimes to the point of curtness
Word origin: From Latin tersus, polished or wiped clean.
Terse in a sentence
Here are example sentences showing terse in a sentence.
His terse reply of 'Noted' made clear he had no interest in further discussion.
The committee's terse reply, just two sentences, left the petitioners uncertain whether they had been rebuffed or merely deferred.
Using “terse” well
Terse means brief and to the point, and it can shade into curtness that seems brusque or unfriendly. It is the opposite of verbose or wordy.
More GRE words starting with T
understood or implied without being openly stated
habitually reserved and uncommunicative in speech
only loosely relevant; diverging from the main point
perceptible by touch or concrete enough to be grasped
to twist together into a confused or knotted mass
equivalent in effect or value to something else
to dull or damage the luster, reputation, or purity of something
needlessly repeating an idea using different words
Questions about “terse”
See these words the way the GRE tests them.
Definitions in isolation do not stick. Sit a free, full-length GRE mock and meet this vocabulary inside real text completion and sentence equivalence questions, with your score and a worked solution for every answer.