# digest

> English word · Verb · IPA /daɪˈd͡ʒɛst/ · frequency rank #11,018

## Definitions
1. To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application.
2. To separate (the food) in its passage through the alimentary canal into the nutritive and nonnutritive elements; to prepare, by the action of the digestive juices, for conversion into blood; to convert into chyme.
3. To think over and arrange methodically in the mind; to reduce to a plan or method; to receive in the mind and consider carefully; to get an understanding of; to comprehend.
4. To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook.
5. To expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for chemical operations.
6. To undergo digestion.
7. To cut with one or more restriction endonucleases.
8. To suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.
9. To cause to suppurate, or generate pus, as an ulcer or wound.
10. To ripen; to mature.
11. To quieten or reduce (a negative feeling, such as anger or grief).

## Etymology
From Middle English digesten, from Latin dīgestus, past participle of dīgerō (“carry apart”), from dī- (for dis- (“apart”)) + gerō (“to carry”), influenced by Middle French digestion. Partly displaced native Old English meltan (intransitive) and mieltan (transitive), both “to melt, to digest,” whence Modern English melt.

## Easily confused with
- **digs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-digs)
- **dist** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-dist)
- **digit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-digit)
- **dives** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-dives)
- **dimes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-dimes)
- **Diggs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-diggs)
- **dikes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-dikes)
- **direct** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-direct)
- **divert** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-divert)
- **divest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-divest)
- **driest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-driest)
- **disgust** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-disgust)
- **digress** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/digest-vs-digress)
- **diet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/diet-vs-digest)
- **dies** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dies-vs-digest)
- **detest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/detest-vs-digest)

## Common misspellings (9)
`ddigest`, `dgiest`, `diegst`, `digesst`, `digestt`, `digets`, `diggest`, `digset`, `idgest`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/digest