CS Knowledge Base

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌm.ə.ɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: summery

From Middle English summary, from Medieval Latin summārius, from Latin summa (“total, sum”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives).^[1][2]

summary (comparative more summary, superlative most summary)

1. Concise, brief, or presented in a condensed form; presenting information in such a form.

   Synonyms: summative, summarizing (part. adj.)

   Near-synonym: abstractive

   A summary review is in the appendix.

   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 104:

     Bernstein's critique of the philosophical basis of Marxism and its derivation from Hegelianism is summary in the extreme. He does not in fact seem to have known any more of Hegel's work than he could gather from the absurd simplifications of Engels.

2. Performed speedily, without formal ceremony, and (especially) without regard to legality.

   Near-synonym: extrajudicial

   They used summary executions to break the resistance of the people.

3. (law) Performed by omitting the procedures of a full trial, but within a legally valid framework.

   Hypernyms: expedited, expeditious

   The matter was brought to a close by summary dismissal of the cases.

   The summary executions caused outrage.

From Medieval Latin summārium, from Latin summa (“total, sum”) + -ārium (suffix forming nouns of purpose).^[3]

summary (plural summaries)

1. An abstract or a condensed presentation of the substance of a body of material.

   I'd forgotten what happened in the first Harry Potter book so I read a summary of the narrative before starting the second one.

   make a summary of the events

• précis
• upshot, bottom line, short form (slang)
• Thesaurus:summary