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brief

adjective · noun · verb

Simple meaning

Of short duration.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

breef
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɹif

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Of short duration; happening quickly.

  2. Occupying a small distance, area or spatial extent; short.

  3. Concise; taking few words.

noun

  1. A short news story or report.

  2. by extensionfigurative

    A position of interest or advocacy.

  3. usually in the plural

    Underwear briefs.

  4. usually in the plural

    Swimming briefs.

verb

  1. transitive

    To summarize a recent development to some person with decision-making power.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of short duration; happening quickly.

Used this way, brief is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use brief

  • “The reporters were briefed about the President's plan to invade.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Concise

brief description

Document

brief moment

Other combinations

brief periodbrief historybrief accountbrief summarybrief discussionbrief overview

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • briefsnounPlural form

    Short tight-fitting underpants (trade name Jockey shorts).

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • brieflyadverbDerived adverb

    For a short time.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • legal briefnounCompound term

    A document stating the facts and points of law of a client's case.

  • amicus curiae briefnounCompound term

    A brief presented by someone interested in influencing the outcome of a lawsuit but who is not a party to it.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.