Adjacent Words

Gist definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GIST, n. In law,the main point of a question; the point on which an action rests.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work [syn: effect, essence, burden, core, gist]
2: the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience; "the gist of the prosecutor's argument"; "the heart and soul of the Republican Party"; "the nub of the story" [syn: kernel, substance, core, center, centre, essence, gist, heart, heart and soul, inwardness, marrow, meat, nub, pith, sum, nitty- gritty]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Anglo-French, it lies, from gisir to lie, ultimately from Latin jac?re — more at adjacent Date: circa 1711 1. the ground of a legal action 2. the main point or part ; essence <the gist of an argument>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the substance or essence of a matter. 2 Law the real ground of an action etc. Etymology: OF, 3rd sing. pres. of gesir lie f. L jacere

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gist Gist, n. [OF. giste abode, lodgings, F. g[^i]te, fr. g['e]sir to lie, L. jac?re, prop., to be thrown, hence, to lie, fr. jac?re to throw. In the second sense fr. OF. gist, F. g[^i]t, 3d pers. sing. ind. of g['e]sir to lie, used in a proverb, F., c'est l[`a] que g[^i]t le li[`e]vre, it is there that the hare lies, i. e., that is the point, the difficulty. See Jet a shooting forth, and cf. Agist, Joist, n., Gest a stage in traveling.] 1. A resting place. [Obs.] These quails have their set gists; to wit, ordinary resting and baiting places. --Holland. 2. The main point, as of a question; the point on which an action rests; the pith of a matter; as, the gist of a question.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

The gist of a speech, conversation, or piece of writing is its general meaning. He related the gist of his conversation to Naseby. N-SING: the N of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Essence, pith, marrow, core, substance, main point.

Moby Thesaurus

affective meaning, axiom, basis, bearing, bench mark, best part, better part, body, bulk, burden, cardinal point, case, center, chapter, chief thing, climax, coloring, concern, connotation, consequence, core, cornerstone, crisis, critical point, crux, denotation, direction, distillate, distillation, drift, effect, elixir, essence, essential, essential matter, extension, fabric, flower, focus, focus of attention, focus of interest, force, fundamental, generality, grammatical meaning, gravamen, great point, head, heading, heart, high point, hypostasis, idea, impact, implication, import, important thing, inner essence, intension, issue, kernel, keystone, landmark, lexical meaning, literal meaning, living issue, main body, main idea, main point, main thing, major part, majority, marrow, mass, material, material point, matter, matter in hand, meaning, meat, medium, milestone, most, motif, motive, nub, nucleus, nuts and bolts, overtone, pertinence, pith, pivot, plurality, point, point at issue, point in question, postulate, practical consequence, principle, problem, purport, question, quid, quiddity, quintessence, range of meaning, real issue, real meaning, recap, recapitulation, reference, referent, relation, relevance, resume, rubric, run-through, rundown, salient point, sap, scope, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, short, significance, signification, significatum, signifie, sine qua non, soul, span of meaning, spirit, structural meaning, stuff, subject, subject matter, subject of thought, substance, substantive point, sum, sum and substance, summary, summation, symbolic meaning, tenor, text, the bottom line, the nitty-gritty, the point, theme, thrust, topic, totality of associations, transferred meaning, turning point, unadorned meaning, undertone, upshot, value