in a nutshell

English

The expression refers to the tidy, compact package.

Etymology

Calque of New Latin in nuce, derived from an anecdote in Pliny the Elder, who ascribes to Cicero the claim that the whole Iliad was once written on parchment and enclosed within a nutshell (Naturalis Historia 7.21.85).

Pronunciation

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Adverb

in a nutshell

1. (idiomatic) In summary; briefly or simply.

   He had a lot to say, but his answer, in a nutshell, was no.

   • 2019 May 1, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Sadio Mané wasted a glorious chance in the first half and, late on, Mohamed Salah turned his shot against a post after a goal-line clearance had spun his way. That, in a nutshell, perhaps sums up the difference between Messi and the players on the next rung below – the ones who can be described as great footballers without necessarily being football greats.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

     The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut.

Synonyms

• at the end of the day, in short; see also Thesaurus:in summary

Translations

in summary

• Catalan: en resum (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 總而言之／总而言之 (zh) (zǒng'éryánzhī), 概括地說／概括地说 (gàikuò de shuō)

• Czech: v kostce, stručně (cs)
• Danish: i en nøddeskal
• Dutch: in een notendop
• Esperanto: unuvorte
• Finnish: pähkinänkuoressa (fi), sanalla sanottuna, lyhyesti sanottuna
• French: en un mot (fr), en résumé (fr), en bref (fr)
• Georgian: მოკლედ (moḳled)
• German: kurzgesagt (de), mit einem Worte
• Greek: εν συντομία (el) (en syntomía), περιληπτικά (el) (periliptiká), λακωνικά (el) (lakoniká), με λίγα λόγια (el) (me líga lógia)
• Hindi: संक्षेप में (saṅkṣep mẽ)
• Hungarian: dióhéjban
• Icelandic: í hnotskurn
• Indonesian: ringkasnya (id), singkatnya, singkat kata (id)
• Irish: go hachomair, i mbeagán focal
• Italian: in breve, in sostanza, in poche parole
• Japanese: 要するに (ja) (ようするに, yō suru ni), つまりは (tsumariwa)
• Latin: in nuce
• Maori: koia pū
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: i et nøtteskall

  Nynorsk: i eit nøtteskal

• Polish: w pigułce
• Portuguese: em poucas palavras
• Russian: кра́тко (ru) (krátko), вкра́тце (ru) (vkrátce), в двух слова́х (ru) (v dvux slováx), одни́м сло́вом (odním slóvom), коро́че говоря́ (koróče govorjá)
• Spanish: en resumen, en pocas palabras
• Swedish: i ett nötskal, kort sagt (sv)
• Thai: โดยย่อ (dooi-yɔ̂ɔ)
• Vietnamese: tóm lại (vi)