Meaning

3 senses
  1. (broadly)Of speech or style: brief, concise, to the point.

    knapp, markig, prägnant

    ко́ваныйkóvanyj, кра́ткийkrátkij, немногосло́вныйnemnogoslóvnyj

    стислийstyslyj, небагатослівнийnebahatoslivnyj

    brief and to the point; effectively cut short

  2. (broadly)Of manner or speech: abruptly or brusquely short; curt.

    kurz angebunden, wortkarg

    односло́жныйodnoslóžnyj

  3. (obsolete)Burnished, polished; fine, smooth; neat, spruce.

Examples

7 sentences
  1. He was always terse on the telephone.

    deAm Telefon war er immer kurz angebunden.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · sundown · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. Mary's email was very terse and it was clear that she was upset about something.

    ruМэрино письмо было очень сжато, и было понятно, что она из-за чего-то расстроена.

    deMarias E-Mail war recht kurz gefasst und es war klar, dass sie wegen irgendetwas verärgert war.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · patgfisher · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. He received a letter from her, but inside were just a few cold, terse words.

    deEr empfing einen Brief von ihr, aber darin standen nur ein paar knappe, kalte Worte.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · sundown · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. He received a letter from her, but it was composed of just a few cold, terse words.

    deEr empfing einen Brief von ihr, aber darin standen nur ein paar knappe, kalte Worte.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · sundown · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. There is a fine line between speech that is terse and to the point and speech that is too abrupt.

    deEs liegt ein feiner Grat zwischen Sprache, die knapp ist und auf den Punkt kommt, und Sprache, die zu schroff ist.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · AlanF_US · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
brief, concise, to the point — see also brief, concise:
Русский
By meaning 2
brief, concise, to the point — see also brief, concise:
abruptly or brusquely short:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
brief, concise, to the point — see also brief, concise:
abruptly or brusquely short:

Origin

From Latin tersus (“clean, cleansed, rubbed or wiped off; neat, spruce; terse”), perfect p

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”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

terser, tersest
Comparativeterser Lesson
Superlativetersest Lesson

regular

Synonyms

16 synonyms

Antonyms

10 antonyms

Word family

2 related words
Relatedterseness
Derivedtersely

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
terse — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto