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PlainSpell

polish

/ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/noun, verb

polish is spelled P-O-L-I-S-H: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, polish means “A substance used to polish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of polish is polishes.

How many letters and syllables are in polish?

Letters6: P-O-L-I-S-H
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,365th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 polish?

Polish appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th 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 polish?

  • UK /ˈpɒl.ɪʃ/
  • US /ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/

Polish 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). Recordings: En-us-Polish_proper.ogg, En-us-Polish.ogg, En-us-polish.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with polish?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as polish from its last stressed vowel (/oʊlɪʃ/):

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 polish

  • polishes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • polishing participle, present
  • polished participle, past

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

What does polish mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A substance used to polish.

    A good silver polish will remove tarnish easily.

  2. 2

    Cleanliness; smoothness, shininess.

    The floor was waxed to a high polish.

  3. 3

    Refinement; cleanliness in performance or presentation.

    The lecturer showed a lot of polish at his last talk.

verb

  1. 1

    To shine; to make a surface very smooth or shiny by rubbing, cleaning, or grinding.

    He polished up the chrome until it gleamed.

  2. 2

    To refine; remove imperfections from.

    The band has polished its performance since the last concert.

  3. 3

    To apply shoe polish to shoes.

  4. 4

    To become smooth, as from friction; to receive a gloss; to take a smooth and glossy surface.

    Steel polishes well.

  5. 5

    To refine; to wear off the rudeness, coarseness, or rusticity of; to make elegant and polite.

adjective

as Polish
  1. 1

    Of, from or native to Poland, or relating to the Polish language.

noun

as Polish
  1. 1

    The language spoken in Poland.

  2. 2

    A breed of chickens with a large crest of feathers.

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

Polish in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpolonais (of Poland or its language), vernis (substance used to polish), polir (make a surface smooth or shiny)
Germanpolnisch (of Poland or its language), Politur (substance used to polish), polieren (make a surface smooth or shiny), Polnisch (the language of Poland), Glanz (cleanliness; smoothness; shininess), Schliff (cleanliness in performance or presentation)
Portuguesepolonês, polaco (of Poland or its language), cera, graxa (substance used to polish), polir (make a surface smooth or shiny), polimento (cleanliness; smoothness; shininess)
Spanishpolaco, polonés (of Poland or its language), pulidor, abrillantador, pulimento, betún (substance used to polish)

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 polish come from?

From Middle English polishen, from Old French poliss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of polir, from Latin polīre (“to polish, make smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to drive, strike, thrust”), from the notion of fulling cloth.

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

What to look up after polish