zest
French, noun/zɛst/
zest is spelled Z-E-S-T (4 letters) and appears about once in every 8 million words in written French, the 92,562nd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Zest is a French masculine noun meaning “zest (of a fruit)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Définition manquante ou à compléter. (Ajouter) Nom utilisé dans les locutions familières être entre le zist…”.
What does zest mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinezest (of a fruit)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Définition manquante ou à compléter. (Ajouter) Nom utilisé dans les locutions familières être entre le zist et le zest et être entre le zut et le zest. 2. Verge.
interjection: 1. Indique la promptitude, la légèreté.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of zest
- zests plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce zest?
- /zɛst/
- \zɛst\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is zest in French?
zest appears about once in every 8 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).