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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.
Examples of gist in a Sentence
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
Alex Hutchinson, Outside, 15 Oct. 2025
His gist is both elegant and internally consistent as well as wholly unique.
—Abraham Josephine Riesman, Vulture, 28 July 2025
There was still some vagueness around specifics, but the basic gist of the deal is that European imports to the U.S. will mostly be tariffed at 15 percent.
—Niall Stanage, The Hill, 28 July 2025
Again, the overall gist is that everyone expects this to be pretty competitive basketball between two good teams.
—Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gist
Cite this Entry
“Gist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gist. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
gist
nounAnglo-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
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