The difference between Essence and Gist

When used as nouns, essence means the inherent nature of a thing or idea, whereas gist means the most essential part.


Gist is also verb with the meaning: to summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of.

check bellow for the other definitions of Essence and Gist

  1. Essence as a noun:

    The inherent nature of a thing or idea.

  2. Essence as a noun (philosophy):

    The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.

  3. Essence as a noun:

    Constituent substance.

  4. Essence as a noun:

    A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.

  5. Essence as a noun:

    A significant feature of something.

  6. Essence as a noun:

    The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.

    Examples:

    "essence of Jojoba"

  7. Essence as a noun:

    An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring.

    Examples:

    "vanilla essence"

  8. Essence as a noun:

    Fragrance, a perfume.

  1. Gist as a noun:

    The most essential part; the main idea or substance (of a longer or more complicated matter); the crux of a matter; the pith.

  2. Gist as a noun (legal, dated):

    The essential ground for action in a suit, without which there is no cause of action.

  3. Gist as a noun (obsolete):

    Resting place (especially of animals), lodging.

  1. Gist as a verb:

    To summarize, to extract and present the most important parts of.