summarise

Everyday

To give the main points of something in a few words, leaving out the details. tree →

In the lessons

In school, «summarise the story in three sentences», «summarise the paragraph», «summarise your results» are common tasks in reading, history and science. A good summary keeps the key ideas and uses your own words. Phrases: «summarise the main points», «to summarise», «summarise in one sentence».

Examples

• Summarise the story in three sentences. tree →
• To summarise, plants need light, water and air. tree →
• Can you summarise what happened in the chapter? tree →
• The scientist summarised her results in a table. tree →
• The news reader summarised the day's main stories. tree →
• Summarise the paragraph in your own words. tree →
• In this place I can only roughly summarise my results. tree →

Note

UK spelling «summarise»; US and Canada «summarize». Noun «summary» (plural summaries). Tip: a summary leaves out details, examples and opinions; it is much shorter than the original. Trap: not «summerise» (no summer!).