briefly

English

Etymology

From Middle English breefly, breffly, brevely, brevelike, breveliche, equivalent to brief +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹiːfli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːfli

Adverb

briefly (comparative more briefly, superlative most briefly)

1. (manner) In a brief manner, summarily.

   He covered the subject briefly in his book.

2. (duration) For a brief period.

   He only worked here briefly.

   • 2023 December 7, Maya Salam, “‘Squid Game: The Challenge’: Hits, Misses and the Bizarre Ending”, in The New York Times‎:

     Instead, ddakji was played for dramatic effect earlier in the season — pitting two men who had forged a sweet bond against each other, making one of them briefly believe he’d been eliminated by his friend.

3. To be brief, in short.

   Briefly, I am not happy about what happened, but no one will be losing their job.

Synonyms

• (in a brief manner): in summarization, concisely, in short, in a word, to sum up
• (for a brief period): fleetingly, summarily, temporarily, transiently; see also Thesaurus:temporarily

Translations

in a brief manner

Assamese: Central: চমুকে (somuke), চুটিকে (sutike) Eastern: চমুকৈ (somukoi), চুটিকৈ (sutikoi) Bulgarian: накратко (bg) (nakratko) Catalan: breument (ca) Dutch: kortweg (nl) Esperanto: mallonge Finnish: lyhyesti (fi) French: brièvement (fr), concisément (fr) Galician: brevemente (gl) German: kurz (de) Hungarian: röviden (hu) Italian: concisamente (it), brevemente (it) Latin: brevī (la), astrictē Malayalam: ചുരുക്കം (ml) (curukkaṁ), ചുരുക്കത്തിൽ (curukkattil) Polish: pokrótce (pl) Russian: кра́тко (ru) (krátko), ко́ротко (ru) (kórotko), вкра́тце (ru) (vkrátce) Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: krotko Spanish: concisamente, brevemente Urdu: مُخْتَصَراً (muxtasaran)

for a brief period

Hungarian: rövid ideig