Word.ws English Dictionary

in short

in short prepositional phrase: as a summary; as a shortened version of what has been told or what would have been told.

Prepositional phrase

  1. As a summary; as a shortened version of what has been told or what would have been told.
    • [H]e told me I did not treat him as if he was my husband, or talk of my children as if I was a mother; and, in short, that I did not deserve to be used as a wife.1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC
    • Mr Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper—foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey-brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India-rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape, and green...1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter X, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC

in short meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Sinhala

in short in Hindi

as a summary
संक्षेप में saṅkṣep mẽ

in short in Urdu

as a summary
اختصار کے ساتھ iḵtisār ke sāth

in short in Malayalam

in a nutshell, briefly, in a word
ഹ്രസ്വമായി, ചുരുക്കത്തിൽ, ഒറ്റവാക്കിൽ, ഏറ്റവും സംക്ഷിപ്തമായി, കരിക്കെന്ന്, സംക്ഷേപിച്ച്

in short in Sinhala

as a summary
කෙටියෙන් keṭiyen
More languagesFewer languages
in short in Arabic
بِاخْتِصَار biḵtiṣār
in short in Persian
خلاصه xolâse, به اختصار be ixtisâr

Examples of in short in a sentence

  • I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […]...
  • In short, the line did not pay, and it was closed to passenger traffic on September 22, 1930, and to all traffic on April 3, 1950.1960 April, J. M. Dunn, “The Anglesey Central Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 227:
  • It was, in short, saved before - and looks to be once more.2025 February 5, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railway heritage saved in 2024”, in RAIL, number 1028, page 53, about Liverpool Street station in...

Synonyms of in short

Questions about in short

What does in short mean?
In short means as a summary; as a shortened version of what has been told or what would have been told.
What is in short in Hindi?
In short in Hindi is संक्षेप में (saṅkṣep mẽ). See In short meaning in Hindi.
How do you use in short in a sentence?
I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.
What part of speech is in short?
In short is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in short in the dictionary

  1. in session
  2. in sha Allah
  3. in shape
  4. in sheets
  5. in shit
  6. in short
  7. in short order
  8. in short pants
  9. in short supply
  10. in short trousers
  11. in shorter order

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in short (page history and authors); in short (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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-in-short.ogg.

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