summary meaning: definition, etymology

summary

adj

/ˈsʌm.ə.ɹi/

Etymology From Middle English summary, from Medieval Latin summārius, from Latin summa (“total, sum”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives).

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

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

Law Performed by omitting the procedures of a full trial, but within a legally valid framework.

Derived terms: summarily, summariness, summary court-martial, summary dismissal

noun

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

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

Synonyms: précis, upshot, bottom line, short form, abridgment, abstract, compendium, conspectus, digest, epitome, outline, overview, résumé, summary, synopsis, the long and short, tl;dr
Derived terms: executive summary, in summary, management summary, metasummary, microsummary, midsummary, summarist, summarize, summarizer, summary diligence, summary execution, summary judgment, summary jurisdiction, summary offence, summary proceedings
Related terms: in summary, recapitulate, blurb
Hypernyms: gist

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.