Shortly

//ˈʃɔɹtli// adv

adv ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a short or brief time or manner; quickly. not-comparable
  2. 2
    In or after a short time; soon. not-comparable

    "The past perfect progressive is used for actions and situations which had continued up to a past moment or shortly before it."

  3. 3
    In few words. not-comparable

    "Ideas are generally expressed more shortly in verse than in prose"

  4. 4
    In an irritable ("short") manner. not-comparable

    ""Stop interrupting me, will ya?" she said shortly."

Adverb
  1. 1
    in the near future wordnet
  2. 2
    for a short time wordnet
  3. 3
    at a short distance wordnet
  4. 4
    in a concise manner; in a few words wordnet
  5. 5
    in a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
before longconciselycurtlyabruptlyabruptlyafter a while

Example

More examples

"Dr. Stein will be with you shortly."

Etymology

From Middle English schortly, schortliche, from Old English sċortlīċe (“shortly; before long; soon”), equivalent to short + -ly.

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