gist

noun

ˈjist 

1

: the ground (see ground entry 1 sense 4a) of a legal action

2

: the main point or part : essence

the gist of an argument

Did you know?

The main point, overarching theme, essence—that’s gist in a nutshell. The gist of gist, if you will. The gist of a conversation, argument, story, or what-have-you is what we rely on when the actual words and details are only imperfectly recalled, inessential, or too voluminous to recount in their entirety. Gist was borrowed from the Anglo-French legal phrase laccion gist (“the action lies/is based [on]”) in the 17th century, and it was originally used in law as a term referring to the foundation or grounds for a legal action without which the action would not be legally sustainable.

Synonyms

• bottom line
• bull's-eye
• centerpiece
• core
• crux
• essence
• heart
• kernel
• keynote
• meat
• meat and potatoes
• net
• nub
• nubbin
• nucleus
• pith
• pivot
• point
• root
• sum

Examples of gist in a Sentence

Thus, Poulterers' Case gave rise to a doctrine which survives to this day: the gist of conspiracy is the agreement, and so the agreement is punishable even if its purpose was not achieved. —Wayne R. LaFave & Austin W. Scott, Jr., Criminal Law, (1972) 1986

… Einstein showed how time intervals depend on the motion of people and clocks doing the measuring. And that's the gist of relativity. —Alan Lightman, Science, January/February 1984

Dorothea told him that she had seen Lydgate, and recited the gist of her conversation with him about the Hospital. —George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1872

didn't catch every word between them, but heard enough to get the gist of the conversation

Recent Examples on the Web

But the basic gist is that there are five points in the Earth-Sun system where the gravitational pull of the two bodies is effectively canceled out. —Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 19 Dec. 2023

That’s the dark gist of this penetrating, moving and darkly funny independent feature. —Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Jan. 2024

The main gist: The tech executives wanted to understand how content on TikTok could lean so heavily pro-Palestinian (the group contends that even in Israel, the ratio of engagement with the top pro-Palestine hashtags to the top pro-Israel hashtags are 2:1). —Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune, 30 Nov. 2023

That’s the overall gist of what is going to happen with Artificial Intelligence (AI) throughout the upcoming year of 2023. —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2022

For years, scientists have (mostly) agreed on the basic gist of the moon’s origin story: About 4.5 billion years ago, a giant, Mars-size object called Theia slammed into the nascent Earth, ejecting hot debris that coalesced into our moon. —Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post, 23 Oct. 2023

From speaking with about a dozen players, including Cooks and Vander Esch, an overall gist was ascertained. —Michael Gehlken, Dallas News, 7 Sep. 2023

That's the basic gist of Porco Rosso, Hayao Miyazaki's greatest film about flying and an underrated classic. —Matt Kamen, WIRED, 7 Sep. 2023

But the basic gist is this: Ohio’s three biggest cities—Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati—are politically closer to Des Moines and Indianapolis than reliably blue Philadelphia, and thus insufficient offsets in otherwise red states. —Philip Elliott, Time, 9 Aug. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Anglo-French, it lies, from gisir to lie, ultimately from Latin jacēre — more at adjacent

First Known Use

1632, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing gist

• the gist
• got the gist of

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Kids Definition

gist

noun

ˈjist 

: the main point of a subject : drift

Legal Definition

gist

noun

ˈjist 

: the ground or foundation of a legal action without which it would not be sustainable

Etymology

Anglo-French, in the phrase laccion gist the action lies or is based (on), from gisir to lie (of process), from Old French gesir to lie, ultimately from Latin jacere