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ish

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ish¹

  • /ɪʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪʃ

Where it comes from

From is.

verb

  1. pronunciation spelling Pronunciation spelling of is

ish²

  • /ɪʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪʃ

adverb

  1. colloquial, not comparable somewhat, reasonably, fairly The exam went well... mostly... ish.

    Similar: fairly, rather, somewhat

  2. colloquial, not comparable about, approximately 'With luck, about twelve.' 'Ah,' said Bernard. 'Twelve-thirty. Ish.'

    Similar: about, almost, around, close to, loosely, near, nearly, roughly, round about

ish³

  • /ɪʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪʃ

Where it comes from

From Pitman ess and eff, which it resembles phonetically and graphically, and the sound it represents. The change in vowel probably reflects the familiar suffix -ish.

noun ishes

  1. The letter which stands for the sh sound /ʃ/ in Pitman shorthand.

ish⁴

  • /ɪʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪʃ

Where it comes from

Phonetic spelling of the clipping of issue.

noun ishes

  1. dated, slang An instalment of a periodical; an issue. "A LITTLE UNPLEASANTNESS" DEPT: Fantasy Digest says in it's^([sic]) latest ish: Quote: Some unpleasantness was caused when Don Wollheim and his brother Futurians were not allowed in the Convention Hall. Unquote.

ish⁵

  • /ɪʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪʃ

interjection

  1. Canada, US, informal, regional ick, yuck

ish⁶

  • /ɪʃ/

Rhymes with -ɪʃ

Where it comes from

From earlier isht, a minced oath and metathetic alteration of shit. Possibly onomatopoeic from being inspired by the sound of the word shit when backmasked in clean or radio edits of hip-hop songs.

noun

  1. euphemistic, uncountable Shit (in various senses). Anyone, really, but seriously, you'd think that people whose very passion depends on their lungs would want to cut that ish out

Ish⁷

Where it comes from

Shortening.

proper noun

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Ishmael.
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Ishani.

ISH⁸

noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism, uncountable Initialism of in situ hybridization

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: like, similar, y, ly, sorta, bulk, shalom, iis, iss, mek, hsi, bosheth, kishor, rather, relatively, middling

Translations

Every language

adv reasonably, somewhat, (fairly)

Deutschhalbwegs, etwas, mehr oder weniger

adv about, approximately

Françaisapproximativement, à peu près
Deutschin etwa, rund, ungefähr

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Cite this
MLA

"ish." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ish. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ish. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ish

Chicago

"ish." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ish.

BibTeX
@misc{ish_2026,
  title = {ish},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ish},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}