brevity
/ˈbɹɛvəti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.85 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Thanks to Global Positioning Systems we can see that Europe and North America are parting at about the speed a fingernail grows—roughly two yards in a human lifetime. If you were prepared to wait long enough, you could ride from Los Angeles all the way up to San Francisco. It is only the brevity of lifetimes that keeps us from appreciating the changes."
- "[B]revity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes[.]"
- "Whenever a public question comes to such a crisis that the opportunities for individual intervention are reduced to the smallest possible compass, Mr. Roebuck is sure to step in with a formula, summing up the case with indignant brevity, censuring somebody, or panegyrizing somebody."
- "A good technical writing style will now be defined as a style possessing clarity, brevity, and variety."
Etymology
First attested in English in 1509; either: * Borrowed directly from Latin brevitās; or * from Anglo-Norman brevité, from Old French brieveté, from Latin brevitātem, accusative of brevitās, from brevis (“short”). By surface analysis, brief + -ity.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *mreǵʰ-, brevitās, brevité, brieveté, brevitātem
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbɹɛvəti/
- British English: /ˈbɹɛvɪti/