Briefing

How to spell briefing

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce briefing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does briefing mean?

1. nounA meeting or document that gives people the essential information or instructions they need before doing something.

Briefing in a sentence

• The team attended a short briefing before the product launch.

• The pilots received a weather briefing ahead of the flight.

Where does briefing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grows out of brief, which English took from the Old French brief and ultimately from the Latin brevis, meaning literally 'short'. The same Latin root gives us 'abbreviate', 'breve', and even 'brevity', all carrying the idea of cutting something down to a small size. In English, brief first acted as an adjective for anything short and later became a noun for a short written summary, especially in law. By the twentieth century, particularly in military and aviation use, the gerund 'briefing' came to mean the act of giving someone a concise set of instructions or facts before an operation. The spelling keeps the giveaway -ie- of brief, which is the classic trap, since the sound tempts writers to swap it to -ei-.

How the word is built

• brief (from Latin brevis: short)
• -ing (noun-forming suffix)