relish
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "relish", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "relish" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "relish" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
relish is aEnglishnoun. It means: Flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this. Pronounced /ˈɹɛlɪʃ/. Often confused with Revis and resist.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | relish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛlɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #19,188 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for relish is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɛlɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,188 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for relish, with forms such as "erlish", "reilsh", and "relihs". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "Revis", "resist", "revise", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is a variant of release (“(obsolete) odour, scent”), from Middle English reles, relese (“odour, scent; taste; efficacy, power”), probably from Anglo-Norman reles, relais, or Old French reles, relais (“that which is left behind, remainder, residue”)… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is relish, spelled R-E-L-I-S-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.
- 2Followed by for: one's liking or taste for something; a fondness.
- 3A small amount; a tinge, a trace.
- 4Ability to taste or (figurative) enjoy.
- 5Particular quality; (countable) an instance of this; a characteristic or quality.
- 6Enjoyment of flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.
- 7Enjoyment of something pleasant; (countable) an instance of this.
- 8Appetizing or pleasant flavour or taste; (countable) an instance of this.
- 9Pleasant quality; (countable) an instance of this.
- 10A savoury dish or course of dishes, especially one accompanying rather than forming the main part of a meal; an appetizer, a side dish.
- 11A savoury dish or course of dishes, especially one accompanying rather than forming the main part of a meal; an appetizer, a side dish.
- 12A condiment or sauce added to food for a spicy or tangy flavour; specifically, one made with chopped, pickled fruit or vegetables.
Etymology
The noun is a variant of release (“(obsolete) odour, scent”), from Middle English reles, relese (“odour, scent; taste; efficacy, power”), probably from Anglo-Norman reles, relais, or Old French reles, relais (“that which is left behind, remainder, residue”), from relaisser, relaschier (“to liberate, release; to relax”) (modern French relâcher), from Latin relaxāre, the present active infinitive of relaxō (“to stretch out or widen again, loosen, slacken; (figurative) to ease, relax”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backwards’) + laxō (“to release, undo; to relax”) (from laxus (“spacious, wide; loose, slack”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg- (“to slacken; to tire out”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Doublet of release. The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erlish,reilsh,relihs,relishh,relissh,rellish,relsih,rleish,rrelish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for relish
Misspelling Variants of "relish"
Frequency rank: #19,188 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: