# gist

> English word · Noun · IPA /d͡ʒɪst/ · frequency rank #22,984

## Definitions
1. The main idea or substance, or the most essential part, of a longer or more complicated matter; the crux, the heart, the pith.
2. The essential ground for action in a lawsuit, without which there is no cause of action; the gravamen.
3. Gossip, rumour; (countable) an instance of this.
4. A sharable snippet of source code, especially on the version controlled pastebin-hosting site GitHub Gist.

## Etymology
The noun is derived from Old French gist, a noun use of the third person singular indicative of gesir (“to lie down”) (modern French gésir; compare Anglo-Norman (cest) action gist (literally “(law) (this) action lies”)), from Latin iacēre, the present active infinitive of iaceō (“to lie down, lie prostrate, recline”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”) (probably in the sense of something being thrown down).
The verb is derived from the noun.
The programming sense is a genericized trademark of GitHub Gist, introduced 2008.

## Easily confused with
- **GS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gs)
- **got** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-got)
- **GPS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gps)
- **gut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gut)
- **Gus** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gus)
- **GST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gst)
- **git** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-git)
- **GSM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gsm)
- **gms** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gms)
- **GSA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gsa)
- **GTS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gts)
- **GSP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gsp)
- **grt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-grt)
- **give** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-give)
- **goat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-goat)
- **gosh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gosh)
- **grit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-grit)
- **gust** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gust)
- **gout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-gout)
- **goss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gist-vs-goss)

## Common misspellings (6)
`ggist`, `gisst`, `gistt`, `gits`, `gsit`, `igst`

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