Pith

Noun

 * 1) The soft spongy substance in the center of the stems of many plants and trees.
 * 2)  The essential or vital part of an idea or theory or something else.
 * The pith of my idea is truth.

Synonyms

 * (essential or necessary part): core, essence, general tenor, gist, heart, heart and soul, inwardness, kernel, marrow, meat, nitty-gritty, nub, quintessence, soul, spirit, stuff, substance

Related terms

 * pith helmet

Verb

 * 1)  To extract the pith from (a plant stem or tree).
 * 2)  To kill (especially cattle or laboratory animals) by cutting or piercing the spinal cord.

Thesaurus
affective meaning, axiom, axis, backbone, bearing, bench mark, bottom, burden, butter, cardinal point, cataplasm, center, center of action, center of gravity, centroid, centrum, chief thing, chutzpah, climax, coloring, connotation, consequence, core, cornerstone, courage, crisis, critical point, crush, crux, dead center, denotation, dental pulp, depth, distillate, distillation, drift, effect, elixir, epicenter, essence, essential, essential matter, essentiality, extension, fabric, flower, focal point, focus, force, fulcrum, fundamental, gameness, gist, grammatical meaning, gravamen, gravity, great point, grit, guts, gutsiness, guttiness, heart, heart of oak, high point, hub, hypostasis, idea, impact, implication, import, importance, important thing, inner essence, intension, intestinal fortitude, issue, kernel, keystone, landmark, lexical meaning, literal meaning, magnitude, main point, main thing, marrow, mash, material, material point, matter, meaning, meaningfulness, meat, medium, medulla, metacenter, mettle, mettlesomeness, middle, milestone, moment, momentousness, moxie, mush, nave, navel, nerve, nub, nucleus, nuts and bolts, omphalos, overtone, paper pulp, paste, pertinence, pivot, plaster, pluck, pluckiness, point, porridge, postulate, poultice, practical consequence, principle, pudding, pulp, pulp lead, pulpwood, purport, quick, quid, quiddity, quintessence, quintessential, rag pulp, range of meaning, real issue, real meaning, recap, recapitulation, reference, referent, relation, relevance, resume, rock bottom, root, run-through, rundown, salient point, sap, sauce, scope, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, short, significance, signification, significatum, signifie, sine qua non, smash, soul, span of meaning, spirit, sponge, spunk, spunkiness, squash, stamina, storm center, stout heart, structural meaning, stuff, substance, substantive point, sulfate pulp, sulfite pulp, sum, sum and substance, summary, summation, symbolic meaning, tenor, the bottom line, the nitty-gritty, the point, thrust, totality of associations, toughness, transferred meaning, true grit, turning point, umbilicus, unadorned meaning, undertone, upshot, value, virtuality, weight, weightiness, white lead, wood pulp

Etymology
Old English piþa:, plant pith, gist, from *undefined:; the verb meaning to kill by cutting or piercing the spinal cord is attested 1805.

Noun

 * Finnish:
 * French: moelle
 * Hebrew:


 * Italian: midollino
 * Norwegian:
 * Spanish: médula, medula, pulpa


 * Finnish:
 * French: moelle, coeur


 * Spanish: médula, medula, meollo