Meanings
- In summary.
He was suspicious, standoffish, taciturn; in a word, hostile.
5 more examples
Near-synonyms: all in all, altogether, briefly, concisely, in other words, in short, in sum, in total, overall, summarily; see also Thesaurus:in other words
In order to deliver the news of Greek victory to Athens, Pheidippides covered the distance there from the plain of Marathon as quickly as his two legs could carry him, and did so without making any stops; in a word, he ran the entire distance.
Man, I got here by putting one foot in front of the other; in a word, I walked.
Susan soon discovered her blind date to be mean, vulgar, obstreperous, presuming, and insulting; in a word, a cad.
In a Word, to hint at no more Reaſons for his Conduct, Mr. Northerton was deſirous of departing that Evening, and nothing remained for him but to contrive the Quomodo, which appeared to be a Matter of ſome Difficulty.
1749, Henry Fielding, “The Conclusion of the foregoing Adventure”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 132Synonyms: all in all, altogether, briefly, concisely, in other words, in short, in sum, in total
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseIn summary.
Origin
- Middle Englishat a worde“in short, briefly, in a word”
- Englishin a word
From earlier in a worde, perhaps an alteration of Middle English at a worde (“in short, briefly, in a word”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 總之 /总之
- 總之 /总之 (zǒngzhī)briefly, concisely
Finnish sanalla sanottuna, lyhyesti sanoen
- sanalla sanottunabriefly, concisely
- lyhyesti sanoenbriefly, concisely
French en un mot
- en un motbriefly, concisely
Hungarian egyszóval
- egyszóvalbriefly, concisely
Icelandic í stuttu máli, í einu orði
- í stuttu málibriefly, concisely
- í einu orðibriefly, concisely
- í einu orði sagtbriefly, concisely
Lithuanian žodžiu
- žodžiubriefly, concisely
Polish jednym słowem
- jednym słowembriefly, concisely
Portuguese numa palavra
- numa palavrabriefly, concisely
Russian одни́м сло́вом
- одни́м сло́вом (odním slóvom)briefly, concisely
Ukrainian одни́м сло́вом
- одни́м сло́вом (odným slóvom)briefly, concisely
Cite this entry
in a word. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20a%20word
“in a word.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20a%20word. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in a word,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20a%20word.
Source: in a word on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.