-ish
/ɪʃ/
"ish" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“-ish” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a suffix. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Typical of, similar to, being like.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ish · -ish · English
-ish · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "-" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | -ish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Suffix |
| IPA | /ɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “-ish” in English
Rare enough to double-check
-ish is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as asuffix, transcribed /ɪʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for -ish in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English -ish, -isch, from Old English -isċ (“-ish”, suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-isk, from Proto-Germanic *-iskaz (“-ish”), from Proto-Indo-European *-iskos. Cognate with Dutch -s; German -isch (whence Dutch -isch); Norwegian, Danish, and… The correct English form is -ish, spelled --I-S-H.
Definition
- 1Typical of, similar to, being like.
- 2Somewhat, rather.
- 3About, approximately.
- 4Of, belonging, or relating to (a nationality, place, language or similar association with something).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how -ish appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Her face had a girlish charm.
[…] ; for she had recently developed a magpie[-]ish tendency to appropriate and conceal trifling matters; […]
Etymology
From Middle English -ish, -isch, from Old English -isċ (“-ish”, suffix), from Proto-West Germanic *-isk, from Proto-Germanic *-iskaz (“-ish”), from Proto-Indo-European *-iskos. Cognate with Dutch -s; German -isch (whence Dutch -isch); Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish -isk or -sk; Lithuanian -iškas; Russian -ский (-skij); and the Ancient Greek diminutive suffix -ίσκος (-ískos). Doublet of -esque and -ski.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.