Word.ws English Dictionary

briefest

briefest is the superlative form of brief.

Meaning of brief

Adjective

brief (comparative briefer or more brief, superlative briefest or most brief)

  1. Of short duration; happening quickly.
    • Her reign was brief but spectacular.
    Synonyms:
    temporal
  2. Concise; taking few words.
    • His speech of acceptance was brief but moving.
  3. Occupying a small distance, area or spatial extent; short.
    • On the beach he always wore a straw hat with a red band and a brief pair of leopard print trunks.1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 17
  4. (obsolete) Rife; common; prevalent.

See all 22 meanings of brief

Questions about briefest

What is briefest the superlative form of?
Briefest is the superlative form of brief.

Words near briefest in the dictionary

  1. briefened
  2. briefening
  3. briefens
  4. briefer
  5. briefers
  6. briefest
  7. briefie
  8. briefies
  9. briefing
  10. briefing against
  11. briefing note

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: briefest (page history and authors); brief (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-briefest.ogg.

Cite this entry: “briefest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/briefest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.