Word.ws English Dictionary

gests

UK/d͡ʒɛsts/

gests is the alternative form of gists.

gests is the plural of gest.

Meaning of gists

Noun

gists pl (plural only)

  1. (obsolete, plural, plural-only) A roll reciting the several stages arranged for a royal progress.

Meaning of gest

Noun

gest (countable and uncountable, plural gests)

  1. (archaic) A story or adventure; a verse or prose romance.
    • The tales of Robin Hood, or the gests written by Ariost the Italian in his booke intituled Orlando furioso.1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC
  2. (archaic) An action represented in sports, plays, or on the stage; show; ceremony.
    • a. 1639, Joseph Mede, a sermon
      And surely no Ceremonies of dedication , no not of Solomons Temple it self , are comparable to those sacred gests , whereby this place was sanctified
  3. (archaic) Bearing; deportment.
    • through his heroic grace and honorable gest1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 24
  4. (obsolete) A gesture or action.
    • They did obeysaunce, as beseemed right, / And then againe returned to their restes: / The Porter eke to her did lout with humble gestes.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

See all 5 meanings of gest

Proper noun capitalized: Gests

Gests

  1. (plural) plural of Gest

Origin of gests

A variant of gists (etymology 1).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words that rhyme with gests

Questions about gests

What is gests the alternative form of?
Gests is the alternative form of gists.
What part of speech is gests?
Gests is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gests?
Gests is pronounced /d͡ʒɛsts/ (UK).

Words near gests in the dictionary

  1. gestorne
  2. gestornes
  3. gestrinone
  4. gestron
  5. gestrons
  6. gests
  7. Gestuno
  8. gesturable
  9. gestural
  10. gesturalism
  11. gesturalist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gests (page history and authors); Gests (page history and authors); gists (page history and authors); gest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gests.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gests. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.