in a word

Briefly, concisely. This expression, which is usually followed by a fair number of words—as in, “In a word, the bank is unable to accommo- date Mr. Brown’s request for a loan”—was used by Shakespeare in Two Gen- tlemen of Verona (“And in a word . . . he is compleat in feature and in mind”). It was much favored by various of Dickens’s more verbose characters, such as Mr. Micawber.