gist

UK/d͡ʒɪst/

gist noun: the main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter; the crux, the heart, the pith.

Noun (1)

gist (countable and uncountable, plural gists)

(countable) The main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter; the crux, the heart, the pith.
- I don't wanna belabor my point; I'm sure you get the gist.
- Should they live and build their church in the American wilderness, their worst dangers would rise in and among themselves rather than outside. That was the gist of the lesson from their pastor and "wellwiller" John Robinson.1948, Carl Sandburg, “Store We Up therefore Patience”, in Remembrance Rock, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →OCLC, part 2, page 103
Synonyms:

essence, quintessence, thrust
(countable, dated) The essential ground for action in a lawsuit, without which there is no cause of action; the gravamen.
- [T]heſe charges, of a traiterous or felonious intent, are the points and very giſt of the indictment, and muſt be anſvvered directly, by the general negative, not guilty; […]1769, William Blackstone, “Of Plea, and Issue”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 333
- [H]e is guilty of a dereliction of opinions that are true and laudable. This is the great giſt of the charge againſt him.1791 August 3, [Edmund Burke], An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 30
(Nigeria, uncountable) Gossip, rumour; (countable) an instance of this.
A sharable snippet of source code, especially on the version controlled pastebin-hosting site GitHub Gist.
- For a simple illustration of the issue, take a look at this gist.2014 November 20, Colin Eberhardt, “Swift Initialization and the Pain of Optionals”, in Scott Logic
- Every gist created is a tiny repository. You can update gists and see the history using git log. You can download gists, hack on the repository, […]2016 February 8, Chris Dawson, Ben Straub, “Gists and the Gist API” (chapter 2), in Building Tools with GitHub, O'Reilly

Verb

gist (third-person singular simple present gists, present participle gisting, simple past and past participle gisted)

(transitive) To extract and present the main ideas or substance, or the most essential parts of (a document, piece of writing, etc.); to abridge, to summarize.
- There are two general ways of getting information, and these two general ways may be summed up in this: take one branch of study and its principles are all gisted, they have been gisted by the accumulated thought of years gone by. These gisted thoughts are axioms, or received principles, and the...1872 August 7, J. H. Hoose, “Professional Instruction in Normal Schools”, in The Addresses and Journal of Proceedings of the National Educational Association, Session of the Year 1872, at Boston...
Synonyms:

condense, précis
(Nigeria, intransitive) To talk idly; chat; also, to gossip.

Noun (2)

gist (plural gists)

(obsolete) A stop for lodging or rest in a journey, or the place where this happens; a rest.
- Theſe Quailes have their ſet giſts, to vvit, ordinarie reſting and baiting places.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book X.] Of Cranes, Storkes, Swans, Quailes, the Glotis, and Strange Birds of Other Countries.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie...
- But the Conſul after that he had intelligence that Perſeus had croſſed over to Samothracia, departed from Pella, and at the fourth giſt and journey that he made, came to Amphipolis.1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XLIV]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 958

Noun (3) capitalized: GIST

GIST (plural GISTs)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

gist meaning in Hindi, Telugu, Arabic and Vietnamese

gist in Hindi

main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter — see also crux, essence, pith: सारांश sārāñś

gist in Telugu

main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter — see also crux, essence, pith: సారాంశము sārāṁśamu

gist in Arabic

main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter — see also crux, essence, pith: لُبّ lubb

gist in Vietnamese

main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter — see also crux, essence, pith: mấu chốt

Examples of gist in a sentence

The gists of the reports, however, their logic, their structural coherence, are molded by a concern to reconstruct the past, by antiquarian interest.1988, Baruch Halpern, “Sisera and Old Lace: The Case of Deborah and Yael”, in The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History, San...
I was really just vomiting images like spoiled sushi (that may be an ill-considered metaphor, but you get my gist).1994 July 15 (first performance), Nicky Silver, “The Food Chain”, in Etiquette and Vitriol, The Food Chain and Other Plays, New York, N.Y....
I don't remember his exact words, but the gist of it was that he wanted it all for nothing, as quickly as possible, without any effort.2003, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter V, in David McDuff, transl., Crime and Punishment, revised edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, part 2...
There's evidence that even our unconscious efficiently only stores the gists of memories and that to fill in details our conscious fabricates them.2004, Paul Dehn Carleton, “Un- to CONSCIOUSness”, in Concepts: A ProtoTheist Quest for Science-minded Skeptics of Catholic, and Other...

All 17 example sentences with gist

Synonyms of gist

22 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of gist

Forms of gist

Noun
plural	gists
alternative form	gest
plural	GISTs
Verb
third-person singular present	gists
present participle	gisting
past participle	gisted
past	gisted

Plural of gist: gists

Origin of gist

The noun is derived from Old French gist, a noun use of the third person singular indicative of gesir (“to lie down”) (modern French gésir; compare Anglo-Norman (cest) action gist (literally “(law) (this) action lies”)), from Latin iacēre, the present active infinitive of iaceō (“to lie down, lie prostrate, recline”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”) (probably in the sense of something being thrown down). The verb is derived from the noun. The programming sense is a genericized trademark of GitHub Gist, introduced 2008.

From Middle English giste, geste (“resting or stopping place, hostel, lodgings; food, refreshment; (figurative) seat of the soul”), from Old French giste (“resting place”) (modern French gîte (“lodging, shelter; self-catering holiday home”)), a noun use of the past participle form of gesir (“to lie down”): see etymology 1.

Words formed from gist

gists

Words that rhyme with gist

43 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gist

What does gist mean?: Gist means the main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter; the crux, the heart, the pith.
What is gist in Hindi?: Gist in Hindi is सारांश (sārāñś). See Gist meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gist in a sentence?: The gists of the reports, however, their logic, their structural coherence, are molded by a concern to reconstruct the past, by antiquarian interest.
What part of speech is gist?: Gist can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce gist?: Gist is pronounced /d͡ʒɪst/ (UK).
What is the plural of gist?: The plural of gist is gists.

Words near gist in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gist (page history and authors); GIST (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-gist.ogg.

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