english

Syllables: En·glish/ˈɪŋ.(ɡ)lɪʃ//ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/

english noun: spinning or rotary motion given to a ball around the vertical axis, as in pool, billiards or bowling; spin, sidespin. Also the alternative form of English.

Noun (1)

english (uncountable)

(Canada, US) Spinning or rotary motion given to a ball around the vertical axis, as in pool, billiards or bowling; spin, sidespin.
- You can't hit it directly, but maybe if you give it some english.
- There was a magical way of putting English on the dice to result in a six.2005, S. Moran, Bronx Boy: Book One of The Zombie Island Trilogy, page 179
Synonyms:

side, spin, sidespin
(broadly, figuratively) An unusual or unexpected interpretation of a text or idea, a spin, a nuance.
- Some drop science, while I'm dropping english.1988, Andre Romelle Young, “Express Yourself”, in Straight Outta Compton, performed by Dr. Dre, Ruthless Records
- Preston Sturgis in his Sullivan’s Travels (1942) put some english on the idea in a bit about a filthy, defeated, white chaingang that is invited to a rural black church for an evening of old movies.1993, Thomas Cripps, Making Movies Black, page 94

Adjective capitalized: English

English (comparative more English, superlative most English)

Of or pertaining to England.
- During the war of 1914–18 the English working class were in contact with foreigners to an extent that is rarely possible. The sole result was that they brought back a hatred of all Europeans, except the Germans, whose courage they admired.1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I
Synonyms:

southron
English-language; of or pertaining to the language, descended from Anglo-Saxon, which developed in England.
- Those immigrants Anglicised their names to make them sound more English.
- Honest, honest, English is just a language of confusions.2020, Abi Daré, The Girl With The Louding Voice, Sceptre, page 187
Of or pertaining to the people of England (e.g. Englishmen and Englishwomen).
- The Uſuwrper [...] within a few miles Tanna's Fort, near the Engliſh ſettlement of Fort William.1765, John Zephaniah Holwell, Interesting Historical Events, Relative to the Provinces of Bengal, and the Empire of Indostan: With a Seasonable Hint and Perswasive to the …, volume 1, T. Becket and...
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
Of or pertaining to the avoirdupois system of measure.
- an English ton
Non-Amish, so named for speaking English rather than a variety of German.
Denoting a vertical orientation of the barn doors on a camera.

Noun (2) capitalized: English

English (countable and uncountable, plural English or Englishes)

(in plural) The people of England, e.g., Englishmen and Englishwomen.
- Cricket—a game which the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of eternity.1979, Stormont Mancroft, Bees in Some Bonnets, p. 175
- The English and the ROTW have a long history of conflict, periodically interrupted for tea.
(in plural) The non-Amish, people outside the Amish faith and community.
(uncountable) Facility with the English language, ability to employ English correctly and idiomatically.
- Sorry, my English isn't very good. I wish I had better English.
The English term or expression for some thing or idea.
- What's the English for 'à peu près'? It depends: how is it being used?
The English text or phrasing of some spoken or written communication.
- The specs are all correct, but the English in the instructions isn't as clear as it should be.
A clear and readily understandable expression of some idea in English.
- Thank you, doctor. Now, please say that again in English.
- Data: I have completed my analysis of the anomaly. It appears to be a multi-phasic temporal convergence in the space-time continuum.
  Dr. Crusher: In English, Data.1994, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, “All Good Things...”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episodes 25-26, Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden (actors)
Synonym of language arts, the class dedicated to improving primary and secondary school students' mastery of English and the material taught in such classes.
- I loved reading until 7th grade English.
- This reflects that in English, students learn a range of text types, such as procedures, editorials, poetry, and not just academic essays.2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary...
Synonyms:

language arts
(dated) A size of type between pica (12 point) and great primer (18 point), standardized as 14-point.

Synonyms:

Mittel, Augustin
(Canada, US, alternative, uncountable) Alternative form of english.
- You are putting too much English on the ball.

Proper noun capitalized: English

English (countable and uncountable, plural Englishes)

The language that developed in England and is now spoken in the British Isles, the Commonwealth of Nations, North America, and many other parts of the world.
- English is spoken here as an unofficial language and lingua franca.
- How do you say ‘à peu près’ in English?
A variety, dialect, or idiolect of spoken and or written English.
- I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as “simple”; the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her Chinese, which could...2003, Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”, in The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, page 278
English language, literature, composition as a subject of study
An English surname originally denoting a non-Celtic or non-Danish person in Britain.
A male or female given name.
A town, the county seat of Crawford County, Indiana; named for Indiana statesman William Hayden English.
An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Kentucky.
An unincorporated community in Brazoria County, Texas.
An unincorporated community in Red River County, Texas.
An unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia.

Verb capitalized: English

English (third-person singular simple present Englishes, present participle Englishing, simple past and past participle Englished)

(archaic, rare, transitive) To translate, adapt or render into English.
- […] when a man expresses in Latin a Thing to be taken by Wrong, and englishes it; […] but if he declares on a Latin Word, which has no perfect Signification, nor so elegant as it might be; yet upon his Englishing of it whereby the Plaintiff's Meaning appears to the Court, the Plaintiff shall...1735, William Wylde, “Chanel v. Robotham (1605)”, in The Reports of Sir Henry Yelverton, Knight and Baronet, translation of original in French, page 68
- […] severe prohibuit viris suis tum misceri feminas in consuetis suis menstruis, etc. I spare to English this which I have said., page 214 (2001 reprint)
(archaic, rare, transitive) To make English; to claim for England.
- While the man Clive—he fought Plassy, spoiled the clever foreign game,
  Conquered and annexed and Englished!1880, Robert Browning, “Clive”, in Dramatic Idylls: Second Series, page 12, lines 7–8

Also used as

english is also the alternative form of English.

english meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Punjabi

english in Hindi

spinning or rotary motion around the vertical axis: अंग्रेज़ी aṅgrezī

english in Tamil

spinning or rotary motion around the vertical axis: ஆங்கிலம் āṅkilam

english in Punjabi

ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ, ਇੰਗਲਿਸ਼ਿੰਗ

More languagesFewer languages

english in Odia: ଇଂରାଜୀ
english in Nepali: अङ्ग्रेजी

Examples of english in a sentence

English only has a past tense and a non-past tense; it has no future tense.
English spelling is often regarded as confusing and unpredictable due to the mongrel nature of that language.
English people are travel junkies, but Americans hardly ever leave their state.

All 40 example sentences with english

Synonyms of english

Forms of english

Noun
alternative US	English
plural	English
plural	Englishes
Verb
third-person singular present	englishes
present participle	englishing
past participle	englished
past	englished
third-person singular present	Englishes
present participle	Englishing
past participle	Englished
past	Englished
Adjective
comparative	more English
superlative	most English
alternative US	english
alternative form (dated, rare)	Inglish
alternative form (archaic)	Englishe
Proper noun
plural	Englishes

Origin of english

Uncertain. It is speculated to relate either to people from England introducing the technique for billiards or bowling in the United States, or perhaps from a particular person with the surname English.

From Middle English Englisch, English, Inglis, from Old English Englisċ (“of the Angles; English”), from Engle (“the Angles”), a Germanic tribe + -isċ; equivalent to Engle + -ish. Doublet of Anglish. Compare West Frisian Ingelsk, Scots Inglis (older ynglis), Dutch Engels, Danish engelsk, Old French Englesche (whence French anglais), German englisch, Spanish inglés, all ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- (“narrow”) (compare Sanskrit अंहु (áṃhu, “narrow”), अंहस् (áṃhas, “anxiety, sin”), Latin angustus (“narrow”), Old Church Slavonic ѫзъкъ (ǫzŭkŭ, “narrow”)). More at Angles (tribe) § Etymology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Words formed from english

Phrases with english

158 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with english

Questions about english

What does english mean?: English means spinning or rotary motion given to a ball around the vertical axis, as in pool, billiards or bowling; spin, sidespin.
What is english in Hindi?: English in Hindi is अंग्रेज़ी (aṅgrezī). See English meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is english?: English can be a noun, an adjective, a proper noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce english?: English is pronounced /ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ (US).
What is the plural of english?: The plural of english is English.

Words near english in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: english (page history and authors); English (page history and authors); english (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); english (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); english (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); english (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-english.ogg, en-uk-English.oga.

Cite this entry: “english.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/english. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.