Word.ws English Dictionary

in a nutshell

in a nutshell adverb: in summary; briefly or simply.

Adverb

in a nutshell

  1. (idiomatic) In summary; briefly or simply.
    • He had a lot to say, but his answer, in a nutshell, was no.
    • Sadio Mané wasted a glorious chance in the first half and, late on, Mohamed Salah turned his shot against a post after a goal-line clearance had spun his way. That, in a nutshell, perhaps sums up the difference between Messi and the players on the next rung below – the ones who can be described as...2019 May 1, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian

in a nutshell meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Indonesian

in a nutshell in Hindi

in summary
संक्षेप में saṅkṣep mẽ

in a nutshell in Marathi

in a nutshell, in short
सारांश sārāuśa

in a nutshell in Urdu

لب لباب, مختصراً

in a nutshell in Indonesian

in summary
ringkasnya, singkatnya, singkat kata
More languagesFewer languages
in a nutshell in Thai
โดยย่อ dooi-yɔ̂ɔ
in a nutshell in Vietnamese
tóm lại

Synonyms of in a nutshell

Origin of in a nutshell

Calque of New Latin in nuce, derived from an anecdote in Pliny the Elder, who ascribes to Cicero the claim that the whole Iliad was once written on parchment and enclosed within a nutshell (Naturalis Historia 7.21.85). Compare typologically Czech stručný, stručně (< struk).

Questions about in a nutshell

What does in a nutshell mean?
In a nutshell means in summary; briefly or simply.
What is in a nutshell in Hindi?
In a nutshell in Hindi is संक्षेप में (saṅkṣep mẽ). See In a nutshell meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is in a nutshell?
In a nutshell is an adverb.

Words near in a nutshell in the dictionary

  1. in a measure
  2. in a mess
  3. in a minor key
  4. in a minute
  5. in a New York second
  6. in a nutshell
  7. in a one-er
  8. in a oner
  9. in a pickle
  10. in a pig's arse
  11. in a pig's eye

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in a nutshell (page history and authors); सारांश (Marathi) (page history and authors); in a nutshell (Urdu Wiktionary) (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-au-in a nutshell.ogg.

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