brevity
UK/ˈbɹɛvɪti//ˈbɹɛvəti/
brevity noun: the quality of being brief in duration.
Noun
brevity (countable and uncountable, plural brevities)
- The quality of being brief in duration.
- Thanks to Global Positioning Systems we can see that Europe and North America are parting at about the speed a fingernail grows—roughly two yards in a human lifetime. If you were prepared to wait long enough, you could ride from Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco. It is only the brevity of...2005, Bill Bryson, A short history of nearly everything
- Synonyms:
- ephemerality
- Succinctness; conciseness.
- [B]revity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes[.]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac... - Whenever a public question comes to such a crisis that the opportunities for individual intervention are reduced to the smallest possible compass, Mr. Roebuck is sure to step in with a formula, summing up the case with indignant brevity, censuring somebody, or panegyrizing somebody.1856 June 14, “Head and Tail”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 2, number 33, London: John W. Parker and Son, page 142
- Synonyms:
- concision
- [B]revity is the soul of wit,
- A short piece of writing.
brevity meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam
brevity in Tamil
- சுருக்கம், செறிவு, குறுகிய
brevity in Bengali
- সংক্ষিপ্ততা, কথা, লেখার স্বল্পতা
brevity in Telugu
- brevity
- టూకీ ṭūkī
brevity in Malayalam
- സംഗ്രഹം
More languagesFewer languages
- brevity in Kannada
- ಅಡಕ, ಸಂಕ್ಷೇಪ, ಅಲ್ಪಾವಧಿ, ಸಂಕ್ಷಿಪ್ತಕಾಲ
- brevity in Sanskrit
- पुलाक pulāka
- brevity in Tagalog
- kaigsian
- brevity in Persian
- ایجاز ijâz
Examples of brevity in a sentence
- It is only the brevity of lifetimes that keeps us from appreciating the changes.2005, Bill Bryson, A short history of nearly everything:
- A good technical writing style will now be defined as a style possessing clarity, brevity, and variety.1966, Jackson E. Morris, Principles of scientific and technical writing:
Synonyms of brevity
Forms of brevity
| plural | brevities |
|---|
Origin of brevity
First attested in English in 1509; either: * Borrowed directly from Latin brevitās; or * from Anglo-Norman brevité, from Old French brieveté, from Latin brevitātem, accusative of brevitās, from brevis (“short”). By surface analysis, brief + -ity.
Words formed from brevity
Phrases with brevity
Questions about brevity
- What does brevity mean?
- Brevity means the quality of being brief in duration.
- What is brevity in Tamil?
- Brevity in Tamil is சுருக்கம், செறிவு, குறுகிய. See Brevity meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use brevity in a sentence?
- It is only the brevity of lifetimes that keeps us from appreciating the changes.
- What part of speech is brevity?
- Brevity is a noun.
- How do you pronounce brevity?
- Brevity is pronounced /ˈbɹɛvɪti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of brevity?
- The plural of brevity is brevities.
Words near brevity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: brevity (page history and authors); brevity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Brevity (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); టూకీ (Telugu) (page history and authors); brevity (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brevity (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पुलाक (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-brevity.ogg.
Cite this entry: “brevity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brevity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.