You searched for: “tersest
terse (adjective), terser, tersest
1. The use of few words; conciseness; succinct: The newspaper reporter wrote her articles in terse, descriptive ways, with short sentences and without excessive or redundant phrasing.
2. An unfriendly and brief utterance; curt: The police officer's questions regarding the accident that Jake had were terse, short, and to the point.
3. Etymology: from Latin tersus, "wiped, polished", from tergere, "to be concise, to the point."
Referring to being concise and very brief in a response.
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In this case, relating to giving arriving visitors a terse goodbye.
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This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group T (page 3)