Skip to main content
PlainSpell

dovish

/ˈdʌvɪʃ/adjective

dovish is spelled D-O-V-I-S-H: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 110,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, dovish means “Pertaining to a dove; dove-like” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dovish?

Letters6: D-O-V-I-S-H
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 13 million words; the 110,368th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is dovish?

Dovish appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 110,368th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dovish?

  • /ˈdʌvɪʃ/

Dovish has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Forms of dovish

  • more dovish comparative
  • most dovish superlative
  • doveish

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dovish mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Pertaining to a dove; dove-like.

  2. 2

    Peaceful, conciliatory.

  3. 3

    Disfavoring increasing interest rates; inclined against increasing interest rates.

    The Federal Reserve's statement on recent inflation was interpreted as dovish by the market.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dovish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germantaubenartig (like a dove), friedsam, friedliebend (peaceful, conciliatory, pacifist), taubenhaft (disfavoring increasing interest rates)
Spanishcolumbino (peaceful, conciliatory, pacifist)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dovish come from?

From dove + -ish.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dovish