the gist

noun

: the general or basic meaning of something said or written : the main points

—usually + of

The gist of her argument was that the law was unfair.

I didn't read the whole article, but I got the gist of it.

Examples of the gist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For those who somehow haven’t seen the 2006 romantic comedy, the gist is that two women, one from England and the other from Los Angeles, swap homes during the holidays and each find an unexpected romance. —Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 10 Oct. 2025

Here’s the gist: Prime Big Deal Days is the perfect time to begin holiday shopping. —Shalwah Evans, PEOPLE, 6 Oct. 2025

There were a few words or phrases that Live Translation didn't catch or misunderstood, but the gist of most utterances was caught and accurately translated. —Gabriel Zamora, PC Magazine, 15 Sep. 2025

Therein lies the challenge of climate modeling: building a computer model of Earth’s surface and atmosphere that captures the gist of its behavior simply but effectively. —Zack Savitsky, Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2025