terse means of speech or style: brief, concise, to the point. It carries an Arena rating of 1824, earned across 31 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, terse ranks #16 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #381 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,790 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,873 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
terse is pronounced /tɜːs/.
Why “terse” is a great word
Marked by a clean, clipped brevity that delivers meaning with economical, sometimes abrupt force. Its etymology is from Latin tersus, meaning 'clean, cleansed, neat, polished,' the perfect passive participle of tergēre ('to wipe, polish, cleanse'). Unlike 'concise,' which emphasizes efficient communication, or 'succinct,' which stresses the compression of ideas, 'terse' carries the clean, sharp edge of language stripped and polished. It is the single-word reply that ends a discussion, the stark dismissal in a military communiqué, or the unadorned epitaph on a plain stone. There is a final, polished silence where more words would only be debris.
Etymology
From Latin tersus (“clean, cleansed, rubbed or wiped off; neat, spruce; terse”), perfect passive participle of Latin tergeō, tergō (“to clean, cleanse, rub, wipe, wipe off”).
adj
- Of speech or style: brief, concise, to the point.
- Of manner or speech: abruptly or brusquely short; curt.e.g.“'Laura!' The voice halting her was terse. Brusque. She turned. [...] 'Before I go,' he said, and his voice was terse, tighter than ever. 'I want to ensure you understand something.'” — 2008, Julia James, The Italian's Rags-to-riches Wife (Bedded by … Blackmail; Harlequin Presents; 2716), Toronto, Ont.; New York, N.Y.: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 107:
- Burnished, polished; fine, smooth; neat, spruce.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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