succinct

English

Etymology

From Middle English succinte, succynt, from Old French succinct, from Latin succinctus, perfect passive participle of succingō (“gird from below”), from sub + cingō (“gird, wrap, surround”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sə(k)ˈsɪŋkt/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /səkˈsɪŋ(k)t/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋkt
• Hyphenation: suc‧cinct

Adjective

succinct (comparative more succinct, superlative most succinct)

1. Brief and to the point.

   Synonyms: concise, laconic; see also Thesaurus:concise

   You should give clear, succinct information to the clients.

   • 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., “Experience”, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page 118:

     But he made the truth very comfortable, and gave a succinct statement of the young man's brilliant beginnings.

   • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XLIX, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

     Philip wired a succinct affirmative, and next morning a stranger presented himself at the studio.

   • 1961 February, R. K. Evans, “The role of research on British Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 94:

     The Derby Carriage Works foreman, when informed that this coach was to be run at 90 m.p.h. to obtain information on bogie hunting, is reported to have offered one succinct word of advice - "Don't!"

2. Compressed into a tiny area.

   Unlike general lossless data compression algorithms, succinct data structures retain the ability to use them in-place, without decompressing them first.

3. (archaic) Wrapped by, or as if by a girdle; closely fitting, wound or wrapped or drawn up tightly.

Derived terms

• succinctness
• succinctly

Translations

brief and to the point

• Armenian: սեղմ (hy) (seġm)
• Bulgarian: кратък (bg) (kratǎk), сбит (bg) (sbit)
• Catalan: succint
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 簡潔的／简洁的 (jiǎnjié de), 簡明的／简明的 (jiǎnmíng de)

• Czech: stručný (cs) m
• Danish: koncis, fyndig
• Dutch: bondig (nl)
• Finnish: ytimekäs (fi)
• French: succinct (fr)
• German: bündig (de), knapp (de), kurz (de), lapidar (de), prägnant (de)
• Greek: λακωνικός (el) m (lakonikós), συνοπτικός (el) m (synoptikós)
• Hungarian: tömör (hu), velős (hu)
• Japanese: 簡潔な (ja) (かんけつな, kanketsu na)
• Kazakh: қысқаша (qysqaşa)
• Latin: succinctus
• Macedonian: содр́жаен m (sodŕžaen), кра́ток m (krátok), зби́ен (zbíen), ко́нцизен m (kóncizen), ла́конски (lákonski)
• Norwegian: konsis
• Persian: موجز (fa) (mujez), مختصر و مفید (moxtasar o mofid)
• Polish: zwięzły (pl), treściwy (pl)
• Portuguese: sucinto (pt)
• Russian: кра́ткий (ru) (krátkij), ёмкий (ru) (jómkij), лаконичный (ru) (lakoničnyj)
• Spanish: sucinto (es)
• Swedish: koncis (sv)
• Tibetan: བསྡུས་པ (bsdus pa), ཚིག་ཉུང་དོན་བསྡུས་པ (tshig nyung don bsdus pa), ཚིག་ཉུང་དོན་ཚང (tshig nyung don tshang)
• Turkish: mücmel (tr) (dated), muhtasar (tr) (dated), özlü (tr), veciz (tr)

compressed into a tiny area

• Bulgarian: компактен (bg) (kompakten)
• Czech: zhuštěný m
• Dutch: compact (nl)
• Finnish: tiivis (fi)
• German: kompakt (de)
• Russian: сжа́тый (ru) (sžátyj)
• Turkish: sıkı (tr), yoğun (tr)

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin succīnctus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syk.sɛ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

succinct (feminine succincte, masculine plural succincts, feminine plural succinctes)

1. succinct, concise; laconic
2. (informal, figurative) light, scanty, frugal

   un repas succinct ― a light meal

Derived terms

• succinctement

Further reading

• “succinct”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.