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What is the opposite of summary as in a Summary Report or A Summary? Common suggestions are Exposition but that doesn't seem right at all, and other suggestions I find in a search are just antonyms of short like long and lengthy. Summary stands on its own as a noun, but none of the others do except Exposition which seems very different in meaning.

In my specific case I have two reports; one is titled End of Month Summary Report and one is End of Month Report - Long Version which is painfully awkward. I'd like to keep the titles short and End of Month Summary sounds perfect. I need a concise, understandable phrase for the latter.

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What is wrong with End of Month Report? It's the whole report, nothing more. The End of Month Summary, End of Month Report (Summary), or End of Month Summary Report is then a summary of that report. –  Jim Nov 3 '11 at 22:23
Or End of Month Exegesis if you want to use a higher-priced word. An exegesis is "An exposition or explanation of a text". –  jwpat7 Nov 3 '11 at 22:41
@Jim Well there's two end of month reports! One is a summary but it is still a report all the same, therefore neither one is the only End of Month Report. –  Ben Brocka Nov 4 '11 at 0:08
@jwpat7 unfortunately I doubt our AP department knows the word Exegesis! I'm a fan of UX first and a fan of fancy specific words second =p –  Ben Brocka Nov 4 '11 at 0:23

5 Answers 5

up vote 10 down vote accepted

At work I generated a report system with two buttons on the main screen: "Summary Reports" and "Detailed Reports". Does "Detail" or "Detailed" work for you? Can you give an example sentence where you'd like to use this word?

For reports, I have sometimes seen terms like "High-level" for "Summary" and "Low-level" for "Detailed" interchangeably.

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It's a report system as well; updated my question to be specific. We have a End of Month summary report which groups items very liberally and a "long version report" which has every record detailed explicitly. The title of the reports were End of Month Summary and End of Month Report Long Version; I'd like to keep the titles as short and clear as possible. Detail seems quite fitting. –  Ben Brocka Nov 3 '11 at 21:39
+1 Summary/Detail are the normal words used in the context of reports. In speech, I often hear breakdown, but you won't often see this on screen as an alternative type of report that you can request. –  FumbleFingers Nov 3 '11 at 21:45
I was going to answer that the opposite of the summary is the actual report, but then I saw this. +1 –  zpletan Nov 3 '11 at 22:11

Elaboration is the opposite of summary.

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I actually like analysis for this purpose -- it suggests that the report contains more than just results but also the raw data and reasoning that lead to them. Detailed is also good.

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Comprehensive End of Month Report may be appropriate in your context.

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In the British government department in which I once worked, reports were divided into Summary and Detail.

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