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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

zest.

The outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/zɛst/
  1. The outer skin of a citrus fruit, used as a flavouring or garnish.

    countable · uncountable
    The orange zest gives the strong flavor in this dish.
  2. General vibrance of flavour.

    countable · uncountable
    I add zest to the meat by rubbing it with a spice mixture before grilling.
  3. Enthusiasm; keen enjoyment; exciting and interesting; relish or gusto; a state of being zesty.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
    Auntie Mame had a real zest for life.
  4. The woody, thick skin enclosing the kernel of a walnut.

    countable · rare · uncountable
  5. State of being a flamboyant or effeminate homosexual.

    countable · derogatory · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French zeste.

verb/zɛst/
  1. To scrape the zest from a fruit.

  2. To make more zesty.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French zeste.

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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.