Briefly

//ˈbɹiːfli// adv

adv ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a brief manner, summarily.

    "He covered the subject briefly in his book."

  2. 2
    For a brief period.

    "He only worked here briefly."

  3. 3
    To be brief, in short.

    "Briefly, I am not happy about what happened, but no one will be losing their job."

Adverb
  1. 1
    for a short time wordnet
  2. 2
    in a concise manner; in a few words wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
conciselyaccuratelyaphoristicallybluntlybriefbrusquely

Example

More examples

"To put it briefly, I do not agree."

Etymology

From Middle English breefly, breffly, brevely, brevelike, breveliche, equivalent to brief + -ly.

Related phrases

in short

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.