How do you use the word "terse" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "terse" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "terse": Mary's email was very terse and it was clear that she was upset about something. He was always terse on the telephone.

Terse Meaning

/tɜːs/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

adjOf speech or style: brief, concise, to the point.

adjOf manner or speech: abruptly or brusquely short; curt.

Sentence Examples

Mary's email was very terse and it was clear that she was upset about something.

He was always terse on the telephone.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

curt crisp concise

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The manager gave a ____ reply when asked about the layoffs.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

He gave a very ____ reply to the reporter's question, making it clear that he did not want to discuss the issue today.

Word Origin & History

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”).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"In eight terse lines has Phædrus told / (So frugal were the Bards of old) / A Tale of Goats; and clos'd with grace / Plan, Moral, all, in that ſhort space." — 1777, [George Riley], The Asses Ears, a Fable. Addressed to the Author of The Goat's Beard [William Whitehead], London: Printed for G. Riley, […], →OCLC; quoted in “Art. VIII. Asses Ears: A Fable. Addressed to the Author of The Goat’s Beard. 4to. 6d. Riley. 1777. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume LVI, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, […], March 1777, →OCLC, page 194:

"Your last series contains some of the neatest, tersest, and most unpretendingly original criticism, I have lately met with." — 1832 September, [John Wilson], “Noctes Ambrosianae. No. LXII.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXII, number CXCVIII, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 409:

"The book contains some happily done portrait touches of Napoleon, [...] and this and other aphoristical sentences scattered throughout this volume, [...] form as terse and trenchant a character-sketch of the Emperor as may be found almost anywhere." — 1902, G. W. Parker, “Things and Other Things: Letters to Living Authors—IX. Sir [Arthur] Conan Doyle”, in Donald Macleod, editor, Good Words, London: Isbister and Company Limited […], →OCLC, page 817, column 1:

"Many protested that they had nothing to do with the fighting. At a word from the General the soldiers ripped off the men's shirts and examined the front of their shoulders. If they found bruises that might have been made from the butt of a gun when it had been fired—the terse order was, "Shoot him!" And many of the young men of Trujillo had disappeared." — 1946, Clayton Knight, The Quest of the Golden Condor, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, page 94:

"[...] [Samuel] Beckett has become virtually mute, musewise, having progressed from marvellously constructed English sentences through terser and terser French ones to the unsyntactical, unpunctuated prose of Comment C'est and 'ultimately' to wordless mimes." — 1977, John Barth, “The Literature of Exhaustion”, in Malcolm Bradbury, editor, The Novel Today: Contemporary Writers on Modern Fiction, Manchester: Manchester University Press by arrangement with Fontana Books; Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, →ISBN, page 73:

Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words