Wish
verbTo feel or express a desire for something, often something unlikely or hoped for.
How to spell wish
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce wish
What does wish mean?
- verbTo feel or express a desire for something, often something unlikely or hoped for.
- nounA desire or hope for something, or the thing that is desired.
Wish in a sentence
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verb
Many commuters wish the train ran more often.
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noun
Her final wish was for the family to stay close.
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verb
They wish him a safe journey home tonight.
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noun
The manager ignored every wish raised by the team.
Where does wish come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word descends from the Old English verb wȳscan, meaning 'to desire' or 'to long for', and the related noun wūsc, 'a desire'. It belongs to a broad Germanic family that includes the Dutch wensen and the German wünschen, all tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root carrying the sense of striving toward something pleasing. Further back still, scholars link it to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to seek out' or 'to be pleased', a thread that also runs through the Latin venus, 'love or charm'. The spelling settled early and stayed simple: the 'wi-' opening followed by the soft 'sh' sound that Old English wrote with 'sc'. Because it is short, native, and phonetically regular, it rarely troubles writers, though the silent shift from the old 'sc' to modern 'sh' is a quiet reminder of its age.
How the word is built
- wish (from Old English wȳscan, to desire); a single Germanic root with no prefix or suffix
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