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Gust Beyond Wind
You’re no doubt familiar with the breezy gust meaning “a brief burst of wind.” But about a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late 16th century, a different gust blew onto the scene. The windy gust likely comes from a synonymous Old Norse word, gustr, whereas the older gust, which refers to the sensation of taste as well as to a feeling of enthusiastic delight, comes ultimately from gustus, the Latin word for “taste.” English speakers eventually mostly dropped that older gust, replacing it in the early 17th century with a similar gustus word borrowed from Italian: gusto is now the go-to word when you want to refer to enthusiastic and vigorous enjoyment or appreciation. You can use it with gusto.
Examples of gust in a Sentence
Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
For these storms, the Storm Prediction Center has placed parts of Kansas and Missouri, including the Kansas City metro, under a slight (Level 2 of 5) risk of severe weather, with large hail and damaging wind gusts the primary hazards.
—Kansas City Star, 14 May 2026
Nelly Carreño, CBS News, 14 May 2026
The storms on Tuesday are capable, at maximum intensity, of producing tornadoes as strong as an EF2, wind gusts less than 75 mph and hail greater than two inches, forecasters said.
—Remington Miller, Arkansas Online, 5 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for gust
Cite this Entry
“Gust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gust. Accessed 16 May. 2026.
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