wish.
A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen.
Meaning & usage
A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen.
It is my wish that the bequest (should) be given to an almshouse.
make someone's wish come true
An expression of such a desire, often connected with ideas of magic and supernatural power.
make a wish
The thing desired or longed for.
My dearest wish is to see them happily married.
You have my best wishes.
A water meadow.
Where this word comes from
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 and 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.
To desire; to want.
I'll come tomorrow, if you wish (it).
I wish it to be known that I wish them all to leave the company.
To hope (+ object clause with may or in present subjunctive).
To hope (for a particular outcome), even if that outcome is unlikely to occur or cannot occur.
I wish I could go back in time and teach myself what I know now.
I wished (that) it would rain.
To bestow (a thought or gesture) towards (someone or something).
We wish you a merry Christmas.
I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
To request or desire to do an activity.
Anyone who wishes to may leave now.
To recommend; to seek confidence or favour on behalf of.
Where this word comes from
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 and 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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.