adv
Meaning 1
In a brief manner, summarily.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: manner
Examples
- He covered the subject briefly in his book.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
briefly
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈbɹiːfli/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -iːfli
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CMU ARPABET: B R IY1 F L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adv
Meaning 2
For a brief period.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: duration, time
Examples
- He only worked here briefly.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adv
Meaning 3
To be brief, in short.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- Briefly, I am not happy about what happened, but no one will be losing their job.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adverb
Meaning 4
for a short time
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- she visited him briefly
- was briefly associated with IBM
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adverb
Meaning 5
in a concise manner; in a few words
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- the history is summed up concisely in this book
- she replied briefly
- briefly, we have a problem
- to put it shortly
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: concisely, shortly, in brief, in short
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From Middle English breefly, breffly, brevely, brevelike, breveliche, equivalent to brief + -ly.
Across languages
Translations
32 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Arabic: بِاِخْتِصَار (biiḵtiṣār) — in a brief manner
- Aramaic: ܒܲܦ݂ܣܵܩܵܐ (bap̄sāqā) — in a brief manner
- Assamese: চমুকে (somuke) — in a brief manner
- Assamese: চুটিকে (sutike) — in a brief manner
- Assamese: চমুকৈ (somukoi) — in a brief manner
- Assamese: চুটিকৈ (sutikoi) — in a brief manner
- Bulgarian: накратко (nakratko) — in a brief manner
- Catalan: breument — in a brief manner
- Dutch: kortweg — in a brief manner
- Esperanto: mallonge — in a brief manner
- Finnish: lyhyesti — in a brief manner
- French: brièvement — in a brief manner
- French: concisément — in a brief manner
- Galician: brevemente — in a brief manner
- German: kurz — in a brief manner
- Hungarian: röviden — in a brief manner
- Italian: concisamente — in a brief manner
- Italian: brevemente — in a brief manner
- Latin: brevī — in a brief manner
- Latin: astrictē — in a brief manner
- Malayalam: ചുരുക്കം (curukkaṁ) — in a brief manner
- Malayalam: ചുരുക്കത്തിൽ (curukkattil) — in a brief manner
- Polish: pokrótce — in a brief manner
- Romanian: pe scurt — in a brief manner
- Russian: кра́тко (krátko) — in a brief manner
- Russian: ко́ротко (kórotko) — in a brief manner
- Russian: вкра́тце (vkrátce) — in a brief manner
- Lower Sorbian: krotko — in a brief manner
- Spanish: concisamente — in a brief manner
- Spanish: brevemente — in a brief manner
- Urdu: مُخْتَصَراً (muxtasaran) — in a brief manner
- Hungarian: rövid ideig — for a brief period
Real reading context