gist.
The main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter; the crux, the heart, the pith.
Meaning & usage
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.
The essential ground for action in a lawsuit, without which there is no cause of action; the gravamen.
Gossip, rumour; (countable) an instance of this.
A sharable snippet of source code, especially on the version controlled pastebin-hosting site GitHub Gist.
Where this word comes from
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.
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.
To talk idly; chat; also, to gossip.
Where this word comes from
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.
A stop for lodging or rest in a journey, or the place where this happens; a rest.
Where this word comes from
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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.