wish
Usage
What are other ways to say wish?
To wish is to feel an impulse toward attainment or possession of something; the strength of the feeling may be of greater or lesser intensity: I wish I could go home. Desire, a more formal verb, suggests a strong wish: They desire liberation. Want, usually colloquial in use, suggests a feeling of lack or need that imperatively demands fulfillment: People all over the world want peace.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I wish I’d played Benedict in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and Antonio in ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ who was one of Shakespeare’s gay characters,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
A medical source who did not wish to be identified told AFP that the hospital was overwhelmed.
From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026
Lydia Lawless, from School Aycliffe in County Durham, saw a tiny library in Manchester when she was five and her next birthday wish was to own one.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
If you wish to see a public that is more informed about A.I.’s upsides and downsides, the downstream effects of these incentives are worrisome.
From Slate • Apr. 7, 2026
“I wish we could have gone to one of the shops you wanted to visit.”
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
