Idiom
in a nutshell
Meaning
In summary; briefly or simply.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That is the plan in a nutshell.”
“The manager explained the new project goals in a nutshell so everyone understood the main tasks.”
“To describe the complex history of the region in a nutshell, one must focus on the recurring struggle for independence.”
Examples
simple
“That is the plan in a nutshell.”
contextual
“The manager explained the new project goals in a nutshell so everyone understood the main tasks.”
complex
“To describe the complex history of the region in a nutshell, one must focus on the recurring struggle for independence.”
Origin
Calque of New Latin in nuce, derived from an anecdote in Pliny the Elder, who ascribes to Cicero the claim that the whole Iliad was once written on parchment and enclosed within a nutshell (Naturalis Historia 7.21.85). Compare typologically Czech stručný, stručně (< struk).
Key words
- Updated