the gist

noun

: the general or basic meaning of something said or written : the main points
usually + of
The gist of her argument was that the law was unfair.
I didn't read the whole article, but I got the gist of it.

Examples of the gist in a Sentence

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Back to the gist of his message: Don’t be afraid to express your views. Sasha Hupka, The Arizona Republic, 26 Nov. 2024 The science is detailed and complicated, but the gist is that evaporative cooling, or sweating, eventually fails to counter internal heating. Outside Online, 23 Oct. 2024 This nearly flies under the radar and few catch onto the gist that these are jobs that are intended to gradually and inevitably do away with the need for human programmers. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024 There essentially wasn’t time to go further back and explore the origin of Rio and Agatha’s relationship, but the gist of it is that Agatha killed a lot of people and kept attracting her attention. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for the gist 

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Cite this Entry

“The gist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20gist. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.

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