What is the difference between terse and succinct

Brief: is a general description of making something shorter. Highly-rated answerer. Read more comments. I heard of brief and concise being used I wonder when they are used :O. See a translation. The most widely used are the ones you mentioned. You would rarely, if ever, hear the others used. The one learning a language! Learn about premium features. Expressing something shorter and in steps is not inferior to long-winded explanations.

If you must blame something for a fine nuance I failed to grasp, blame the fact that English is not my first language. I doubt I would have caught it in Dutch either, but at least that could be a valid reason. But herein lies part of the problem - at first you said that the two meant the same thing in common parlance, then you said the same thing in technical parlance; there's confusion in the audience right there. Anyway, while it was clear what you meant , what you said was not quite correct, which is why I piped up.

Particularly in technical writing, you've got to get your words nailed down correctly. This is why there are things like the RFC defining what 'shall', 'should', and 'may' mean intended for other RFCs, but it's also used elsewhere [1], or the development of Simplified Technical English[2]. The latter was developed in aerospace engineering, where minor misunderstandings can literally cost lives.

Subtle differences between words are important, and they allow us to communicate more complex ideas. Twitter may have it's place, but any conversation involving nuance really isn't suited for it. See more words from the same year. Accessed 14 Nov. See the full definition for terse in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Nglish: Translation of terse for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of terse for Arabic Speakers.

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of terse. Other Words from terse tersely adverb. Choose the Right Synonym for terse concise , terse , succinct , laconic , summary , pithy , compendious mean very brief in statement or expression. Examples of terse in a Sentence Everything about him is tidy, from his terse wit to the flecks of gray hair that fall in precise iterations around the edges of his scalp.

His entries are terse , bullet descriptions of the unending chaos outside.