Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Brevity
1.
Shortness of duration; briefness of time;
as, the
. brevity
of human life2.
Contraction into few words; conciseness.
Brevity
is the soul of wit. Shakespeare
This argument is stated by St. John with his usual elegant
brevity
and simplicity. Bp. Porteus.
Syn. – Shortness; conciseness; succinctness; terseness.
Webster 1828 Edition
Brevity
BREV'ITY
,Noun.
1.
Shortness; applied to time; as the brevity of human life.2.
Shortness; conciseness; contraction into few words; applied to discourses or writings.Definition 2024
brevity
brevity
English
Noun
brevity (countable and uncountable, plural brevities)
- (uncountable) The quality of being brief in duration.
- 2005, Bill Bryson, A short history of nearly everything:
- Thanks to Global Positioning Systems we can see that Europe and North America are parting at about the speed a fingernail grows—roughly two yards in a human lifetime. If you were prepared to wait long enough, you could ride from Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco. It is only the brevity of lifetimes that keeps us from appreciating the changes.
-
- (uncountable) Succinctness; conciseness.
- 1966, Jackson E. Morris, Principles of scientific and technical writing:
- A good technical writing style will now be defined as a style possessing clarity, brevity, and variety.
-
- (rare, countable) A short piece of writing.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
the quality of being brief in duration
succinctness; conciseness
See also
- Appendix:Brief amounts of time