英和和英

語源

From earlier in a worde, perhaps an alteration of 中期英語 at a worde (“in short, briefly, in a word”).

前置詞句

in a word

1. In summary.

   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.

   He was suspicious, standoffish, taciturn; in a word, hostile.

   Susan soon discovered her blind date to be mean, vulgar, obstreperous, presuming, and insulting; in a word, a cad.

   • 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 132:

     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.

使用する際の注意点

• The summing up that is being done may be merely abbreviative (where no variety or heterogeneity of aspects is being glossed over) or may be cumulative (where some variety or heterogeneity is lost). The "ran" and "walked" examples illustrate the abbreviative use, whereas the "hostile" and "cad" examples illustrate the cumulative use.
• The value of X for "in a word, X" is sometimes literally a single word (as in the "hostile" example); and when it is a phrase, there is often a core word within it that is the key word (as in the "he ran" or "a cad" examples). Some speakers may feel that if neither of those things is strictly true then "in other words" is the mot juste (rather than "in a word").

関連する語

アナグラム

• Wordian