wish

Meaning

Noun

1. A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen.
2. An expression of such a desire, often connected with ideas of magic and supernatural power.
3. The thing desired or longed for.
4. A water meadow.

Verb

1. (transitive) To desire; to want.
2. (archaic, transitive) To hope (+ object clause with may or in present subjunctive).
3. (intransitive) To hope (for a particular outcome), even if that outcome is unlikely to occur or cannot occur.
4. (ditransitive) To bestow (a thought or gesture) towards (someone or something).
5. (intransitive) To request or desire to do an activity.
6. (transitive) To recommend; to seek confidence or favour on behalf of.

Synonyms

desire

want

hope

will

aspiration

request

inclination

intention

longing

like

expectation

ambition

long for

dream

😴💭

fancy

love

❤️

covet

thought

💭

itch

beg

yearning

need

prayer

eagerness

ardour

ardor

keenness

pray

🛐

bid

be willing to

expect

purpose

lust

mind

long

feel like

willingness

demand

opinion

aim

think

🤔

idea

💡

crave

intend

care

regard

pleasure

yearn

hunger

craving

Translations

souhaiter

Wunsch

desiderio

souhait

désir

deseo

verlangen

wünschen

desejo

desear

désirer

desiderare

wens

desig

Pronounced as (IPA)

/wɪʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: wisshen

Inherited from Old English: wȳsċan

Cognate with Scots: wis

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: wonskje

Cognate with Western Frisian: winskje

Cognate with Dutch: wensen

Cognate with German: wünschen

Cognate with Danish: ønske

Cognate with Icelandic: æskja

Cognate with Latin: Venus

In summary

From Middle English wisshen, wischen, wüschen, from Old English wȳsċan (“to wish”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunskijan, from Proto-Germanic *wunskijaną (“to wish”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to wish, love”).
Cognate with Scots wis (“to wish”), Saterland Frisian wonskje (“to wish”), West Frisian winskje (“to wish”), Dutch wensen (“to wish”), German wünschen (“to wish”), Luxembourgish wënschen (“to wish”), Yiddish ווינטשן (vintshn, “to wish”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål ønske (“to wish”), Faroese ynskja (“to wish, to desire”), Icelandic æskja, óska (“to wish”), Norwegian Nynorsk ønskja, ønskje, ønska, ønske, ynskja, ynskje (“to wish, to desire”), Swedish önska (“to wish”). Via PIE cognate with Latin Venus, veneror (“venerate, honour, love”), English wonder.

Sentences

I wish you could see him making squibs .

I said I wish I'd never been born .

I had no wish to be reminded of Augustus's speech .

Essentially , we humans seem to wish to separate spacetime into slices of constant time .

‘I only wish I had such eyes , ’ the King remarked in a fretful tone .