Skip to main content
PlainSpell

ish

/ɪʃ/verb, adverb, noun, interjection

ish is spelled I-S-H: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Ish, the name). As a verb, ish means “Pronunciation spelling of is” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in ish?

Letters3: I-S-H
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.2 times per million words; the 10,843rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ish?

Ish appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Ish, the name.

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

How do you pronounce ish?

  • /ɪʃ/

Ish has one syllable (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). Recordings: En-us--ish.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-ish.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ish?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ish from its last stressed vowel (/ɪʃ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: his, shi.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ish

  • ishes plural

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

What does ish mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    Pronunciation spelling of is.

adverb

  1. 1

    colloquialsomewhat, reasonably, fairly

    The exam went well... mostly... ish.

  2. 2

    colloquialabout, approximately

noun

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

    Shit (in various senses).

  3. 3

    datedslangAn instalment of a periodical; an issue.

interjection

  1. 1

    CanadaUSinformalick, yuck

noun

as ISH
  1. 1

    Initialism of in situ hybridization.

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

Ish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
German-haft, -lich, -ig (appended to words), um ... herum, ca. (appended to numbers), halbwegs (reasonably, somewhat, (fairly))
Portuguese-ico (appended to words), -ês, -esa, -eses, -esas (appended to roots denoting names of nations or…)
Spanish-ico, -iento (appended to words), -és, -esa (appended to roots denoting names of nations or…), -ento, -oso (appended to adjectives)
Frenchenviron, à peu près, -aine (appended to numbers), -ois (appended to roots denoting names of nations or…), -âtre, assez (appended to adjectives)

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 ish come from?

From is.

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

What to look up after ish