What does "summary" mean?

An abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.

Summary

Common synonyms include: compendious, drumhead, abbreviated, abbreviation, abridged, abridgement.

//ˈsʌməɹi// adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
An abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.
"I'd forgotten what happened in the first Harry Potter book so I read a summary of the narrative before starting the second one."
2
a brief statement that presents the main points in a concise form wordnet

Adjective

1
Concise, brief, or presented in a condensed form; presenting information in such a form.
"Near-synonym: abstractive"
2
Performed speedily, without formal ceremony, and (especially) without regard to legality.
"Near-synonym: extrajudicial"
3
Performed by omitting the procedures of a full trial, but within a legally valid framework.
"The matter was brought to a close by summary dismissal of the cases."

Adjective

Proper Noun

"The following is a summary of the President's speech."

Etymology 1

From Middle English summary, from Medieval Latin summārius, from Latin summa (“total, sum”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives).

Etymology 2

From Medieval Latin summārium, from Latin summa (“total, sum”) + -ārium (suffix forming nouns of purpose).

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