in a nutshell

English

The expression refers to the tidy, compact package.

Etymology

Calque of Latin in nuce.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Adverb

in a nutshell

1. (idiomatic) In summary; briefly or simply.

   He had a lot to say, but his answer, in a nutshell, was no.

   • 2019, Daniel Taylor, Lionel Messi magic puts Barcelona in command of semi-final with Liverpool (in The Guardian, 1 May 2019)[1]

     Sadio Mané wasted a glorious chance in the first half and, late on, Mohamed Salah turned his shot against a post after a goal-line clearance had spun his way. That, in a nutshell, perhaps sums up the difference between Messi and the players on the next rung below – the ones who can be described as great footballers without necessarily being football greats.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

     The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut.

Synonyms

• at the end of the day, in short; see also Thesaurus:in summary

Translations

in summary

• Catalan: en resum (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 總而言之／总而言之 (zh) (zǒng'éryánzhī), 总而言之 (zh) (zǒng'éryánzhī), 概括地說／概括地说, 概括地说 (gàikuò de shuō)

• Danish: i en nøddeskal
• Dutch: in een notendop
• Finnish: pähkinänkuoressa (fi), sanalla sanottuna, lyhyesti sanottuna
• French: en un mot (fr)
• Georgian: მოკლედ (moḳled)
• German: kurzgesagt, mit einem Worte
• Icelandic: í hnotskurn
• Italian: in breve
• Japanese: 要するに (ようするに, yō suru ni), つまりは (tsumariwa)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: in nuce
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: i et nøtteskall

  Nynorsk: i eit nøtteskal

• Polish: w pigułce
• Portuguese: em poucas palavras
• Russian: кра́тко (ru) (krátko), вкра́тце (ru) (vkrátce), в двух слова́х (ru) (v dvux slováx), одни́м сло́вом (odním slóvom), коро́че говоря́ (koróče govorjá)
• Spanish: en resumen
• Swedish: i ett nötskal, kort sagt (sv), kort och gott (sv)
• Thai: โดยย่อ