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

Euro zone inflation is also in focus after sinking briefly below the ECB’s target in the autumn to 1.8%, but rising back above the 2% goal in November. —Chloe Taylor, CNBC, 18 Dec. 2024

The antimalarial drug was briefly touted as a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus at a time when little else was available. —Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, 18 Dec. 2024

Aronowitz, who can briefly be spotted in the current Beatles ’64 doc, was also the first manager of the Velvet Underground and introduced Dylan to Allen Ginsberg, and Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis. —David Browne, Rolling Stone, 17 Dec. 2024

Yoon, impeached Saturday and stripped of his presidential powers and duties, briefly declared martial law on Dec. 3. —Hakyung Kate Lee, ABC News, 16 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

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