concise
- Giving a lot of information clearly and in few words; brief but comprehensive.
In a sentence
- The professor asked students to write a concise summary of the article in no more than 100 words.
- His concise instructions made assembling the furniture far easier than the original manual had.
Usage note. 'Concise' implies compression without loss of meaning, which distinguishes it from 'brief' (merely short) and 'terse' (which can suggest unhelpful bluntness).
Where it comes from
English concise · entered English late 16th c.
From Latin 'concisus,' the past participle of 'concidere,' meaning 'to cut up' or 'to cut short,' formed from 'con' (intensive prefix) and 'caedere' (to cut). The metaphor of cutting suggests trimming away unnecessary words. It entered English in the late 16th century, primarily as a term of rhetoric and style.