briefly

adverb

brief·​ly ˈbrē-flē 

1

a

: in a brief way

briefly mentioned

b

: in brief

the food, briefly, was awful

2

: for a short time

briefly married

Synonyms

• compactly
• concisely
• crisply
• curtly
• elliptically
• laconically
• pithily
• shortly
• succinctly
• summarily
• tersely

Examples of briefly in a Sentence

Several important issues are only briefly mentioned.

Please briefly describe your experience.

We briefly considered canceling the trip.

Recent Examples on the Web

Attractive dark, fissured bark is showcased when leaves drop off, if only briefly, during the winter. —Joshua Siskin, Orange County Register, 18 May 2024

Each installment features a member of Kinds’ rep company, playing different characters in unrelated (but thematically complementary) tragicomedies of manners; the exception is Hunter Schafer, who only briefly appears in the last third. —David Fear, Rolling Stone, 18 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a