in a word
in a word prepositional phrase: in summary.
Prepositional phrase
- In summary.
- Near-synonyms: all in all, altogether, briefly, concisely, in other words, in short, in sum, in total, overall, summarily; see also Thesaurus:in other words
- In order to deliver the news of Greek victory to Athens, Pheidippides covered the distance there from the plain of Marathon as quickly as his two legs could carry him, and did so without making any stops; in a word, he ran the entire distance.
- Synonyms:
- all in all, altogether, briefly, concisely, in other words, in short, in sum, in total, overall, summarily
Examples of in a word in a sentence
- Man, I got here by putting one foot in front of the other; in a word, I walked.
- He was suspicious, standoffish, taciturn; in a word, hostile.
- Susan soon discovered her blind date to be mean, vulgar, obstreperous, presuming, and insulting; in a word, a cad.
- In a Word, to hint at no more Reaſons for his Conduct, Mr.1749, Henry Fielding, “The Conclusion of the foregoing Adventure”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew]...
Synonyms of in a word
Origin of in a word
From earlier in a worde, perhaps an alteration of Middle English at a worde (“in short, briefly, in a word”).
Questions about in a word
- What does in a word mean?
- In a word means in summary.
- How do you use in a word in a sentence?
- Man, I got here by putting one foot in front of the other; in a word, I walked.
- What part of speech is in a word?
- In a word is a prepositional phrase.
Words near in a word in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: in a word (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:
Cite this entry: “in a word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_a_word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.