English
adjectiveRelating to England, its people, or the language spoken there and used widely around the world.
How to spell english
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce english
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does english mean?
- adjectiveRelating to England, its people, or the language spoken there and used widely around the world.
English in a sentence
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The report was translated from French into english.
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She teaches english literature at the local college.
Where does english come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word descends from the Old English Englisc, meaning 'of the Angles', the Germanic tribe that migrated to Britain from what is now southern Denmark and northern Germany. The Angles, alongside the Saxons and Jutes, settled in Britain from the fifth century onward, and their name eventually gave the land itself the title Engla land, literally 'land of the Angles', which became England. The element -ish is the familiar Germanic suffix marking belonging or origin, the same one seen in 'Scottish' and 'Spanish'. Over the centuries the sense broadened from the people to the language they spoke, so that today the word names one of the most widely used languages in the world. The spelling preserves the older 'Engl' shape even though the pronunciation has softened, which is why the silent-feeling 'g' before the 'l' can occasionally trip writers up.
How the word is built
- Engl- (from Engle, the Angles, a Germanic people)
- -ish (adjective suffix meaning 'belonging to')
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