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Gust Beyond Wind
You're no doubt familiar with the simple gust that means "a brief burst of wind." At least a century and a half before that word first appeared in print in the late 16th century, however, a differently derived homograph came on the scene. The windy gust is probably derived from an Old Norse word gustr, whereas our older featured word (which is now considerably rarer than its look-alike) comes to us through Middle English from gustus, the Latin word for "taste." Gustus gave English another word as well. Gusto (which now usually means "zest" but can also mean "an individual or specific taste") comes to us from gustus by way of Italian.
Synonyms
Examples of gust in a Sentence
Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN, 15 June 2024
Colorado’s Front Range and Eastern Plains could see between golf ball- and tennis ball-sized hail, wind gusts of up to 80 mph and a couple tornadoes, according to NWS forecasters.
—Katie Langford, The Denver Post, 14 June 2024
Wisconsin could be in for some severe thunderstorms, large hail and damaging wind this week
In addition to all the high and low temperatures in the area, southeastern Wisconsin could see severe thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon with a chance for large hail and damaging wind gusts.
—Drew Dawson, Journal Sentinel, 11 June 2024
Winds could range from 5 to 14 mph, with gusts potentially reaching up to 25 mph.
—Angela Rodriguez, Sacramento Bee, 3 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for gust 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gust.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Gust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gust. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.
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