curt

• POS: Adjective, Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

curt, a. [L. curtus; cf. Skr. kart to cut. Cf. Curtail.].

 Characterized by excessive brevity; short; rudely concise; as, curt limits; a curt answer.  [1913 Webster]
"The curt, yet comprehensive reply."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

curt, adj. noticeably or rudely brief.

Derivative

curtly adv. curtness n.

Etymology

L curtus cut short, abridged

THESAURUS

curt

Spartan, abbreviated, abridged, abrupt, aggressive, aposiopestic, bearish, beastly, bluff, blunt, brash, brief, brusque, cavalier, churlish, clipped, close, close-tongued, closemouthed, compact, compendious, compressed, concise, condensed, contracted, crisp, crusty, curtal, curtate, cut, decurtate, docked, dumb, economical of words, elliptic, epigrammatic, gnomic, gruff, harsh, imperious, indisposed to talk, instantaneous, laconic, little, low, mum, mute, peremptory, pithy, pointed, pruned, quiet, reserved, rough, rude, sententious, severe, sharp, short, short and sweet, shortened, silent, snappish, snippety, snippy, snug, sparing of words, speechless, succinct, summary, surly, synopsized, synoptic, taciturn, terse, tight, tight-lipped, to the point, tongue-tied, transient, truculent, truncated, unceremonious, unloquacious, untalkative, word-bound, wordless

ROGET THESAURUS

curt

Conciseness

N conciseness, brevity, the soul of wit, laconism, Tacitus, ellipsis, syncope, abridgment, compression, epitome, monostich, brunch word, portmanteau word, concise, brief, short, terse, close, to the point, exact, neat, compact, compressed, condensed, pointed, laconic, curt, pithy, trenchant, summary, pregnant, compendious, succinct, elliptical, epigrammatic, quaint, crisp, sententious, concisely, briefly, summarily, in brief, in short, in a word, in a few words, for shortness sake, to come to the point, to make a long story short, to cut the matter short, to be brief, it comes to this, the long and the short of it is, brevis esse laboro obscurus fio.

Taciturnity

N taciturnity, silence, muteness, obmutescence, taciturnity, pauciloquy, costiveness, curtness, reserve, reticence, man of few words, silent, mute, mum, silent as a post, silent as a stone, silent as the grave, dumb, unconversable, taciturn, sparing of words, closetongued, costive, inconversable, curt, reserved, reticent, Int, shush!, tush!, silence!, mum!, hush!, chut!, hist!, tut!, chup!, mum's the word, keep your mouth shut!, cave quid dicis quando et cui, volto sciolto i pensieri stretti.

Shortness

N shortness, brevity, littleness, a span, shortening, abbreviation, abbreviature, abridgment, concision, retrenchment, curtailment, decurtation, reduction, epitome, elision, ellipsis, conciseness, abridger, epitomist, epitomizer, short, brief, curt, compendious, compact, stubby, scrimp, shorn, stubbed, stumpy, thickset, pug, chunky, decurtate, retrousse, stocky, squab, squabby, squat, dumpy, little, curtailed of its fair proportions, short by, oblate, concise, summary, shortly, in short.