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Is there any English word having the meaning of short description of the event? It could be quote, saying, proverb or just simple sentence showing the real or hidden meaning of what happened.

For example, I would like to describe event of girl leaving my friend for other guy as "no woman, no cry" and say that "no woman, no cry" is appropriate _ for the event.

Is there word for that in English?

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No woman,no cry doesn't give me a feeling that a guy got dumped. I mean in no way it convey to me of any event description. –  Apoorva Jan 6 '12 at 11:00
I just tried to provide an example and admit that it is probably not the good one. –  altern Jan 6 '12 at 12:57

6 Answers 6

up vote 1 down vote accepted

The closest is perhaps a tagline, but even that is not a great fit.

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From Wiktionary, noun moral means

The ethical significance or practical lesson. [e.g.] The moral of the The Boy Who Cried Wolf is that if you repeatedly lie, people won't believe you when you tell the truth.

Moral often is used to refer to "the real" (but usually not hidden) meaning of a story or event.

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You can say "'no woman, no cry' is an appropriate commentary for the event."

commentary, noun : An apt explanation or illustration: a scandal that is a sad commentary on national politics. [AHED]

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There are several ways to do it. "The quick summary is no ring means no wedding." works pretty well. A very formal-sounding response would be "Here's a quick précis of the event: . . . " You could also use synopsis. For example, the listener could say "Don't tell me the whole story; just give me a synopsis."

And a fairly informal way to say it would be "Upshot: I'm single again."

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An idiomatic phrase to describe this is in a nutshell.

From Dictionary.com, sense 2:

nut·shell   [nuht-shel] noun
in a nutshell, in very brief form; in a few words: Just tell me the story in a nutshell.

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Been a long time since you asked the question, but for anyone coming from Google and wanting an answer — here it is:

Vignette: "A short description of an event, behavior or person"

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this is good term but I always detect a connotation of decorativeness in it (that goes with its literal meaning). –  user49727 Sep 2 '13 at 23:05

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