Display omitted •Gd doped ZnO nanostructures with different Gd concentrations are synthesized.•XRD and SEM as well as EDS confirm the formation of presence of Gd contents in ZnO matrix.•Effects of Gd concentrations on structural and defects related luminescence has been investigated in details.•Luminescence intensity is found to decrease after increase of Gd doping concentration.•Enhanced defect related luminescence is investigated indicates suitability of samples for optoelectronic devices. In the present work, one-step, mass-scale productive solid state reaction method has been employed for the preparation of gadolinium (Gd) doped ZnO (GZOx: x  = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 wt%) nanostructures. The prepared GZOx samples have been studies their structural, morphological, elemental diffusion profile and optical properties using P-XRD, FE-SEM, EDS, FTIR, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The powder X-ray diffractometer (P-XRD) results clearly indicate strong and sharp diffraction peaks with broadening that confirms the formation of hexagonal nanocrystalline structure of ZnO and Gd doped ZnO. The hexagonal morphology formation of the grains after doping of Gd contents into the ZnO nanostructures system is seen from the FE-SEM micrographs and the sizes of the grains are found to close to the results obtained from XRD patterns. The presence of Gd contents in ZnO matrix confirms its doping by EDS spectrum of 4 wt% Gd doped ZnO nanostructures. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) results confirm the presence of functional groups and chemical bonding of ZnO at room temperature. Investigation of optical emission is interesting and the PL spectra reveal two emission peaks, one in UV-region located in the range of ∼385 to 395 nm and other is defects related emission centred at ∼450, ∼468, ∼503 and ∼562 nm in visible region for all the samples. The enhanced PL intensity is observed in the higher doped Gd contents in ZnO nanostructures and can be attributed to the presence of Gd ions into ZnO lattice. The detailed structural and luminescence analysis has been carried out and correlated. The study of structural and optical properties GZOx samples suggest the luminescent optoelectronic applications.