Word.ws English Dictionary

runish

runish adjective: of or relating to runes, runic inscription, or runic language; runic.

Adjective (1)

runish (comparative more runish, superlative most runish)

  1. Of or relating to runes, runic inscription, or runic language; runic.
    • Hundreds of these Golden Ornaments — Rank-decorations, Family Medals, Gift- pieces, Amulets, or whatever else they may have been — have no letters at all, either runish or otherwise.1884, George Stephens, Handbook of the old-northern runic monument of Scandinavia and England
    • Susan's impatient monosyllable startled Jori, slung in the halter on her chest, but he promptly went back to sleep after blowing a couple of bubbles. 'It's in Runish, the old language.2005, Tango Wayne, Scandinal
  2. Mysterious; strange.
    • Baltazar is stunned with fear as he watches the floating hand carve mysterious "runisch sauez" (runish writings) (1544-45) in the wall.2003, Ann R. Meyer, Medieval Allegory and the Building of the New Jerusalem
    • It's such cross-purpose my heart craves, These guests on old Twelfth Night, Their runish, unreadable moil Of prints, the barrowed creche Awaiting thaw.2011, Marly Youmans, The Throne of Psyche

Adjective (2)

runish (comparative more runish, superlative most runish)

  1. Rough, violent.

Forms of runish

comparativemore runish
superlativemost runish
alternative formRunish

Origin of runish

From Middle English runish, runisch, from Old English *rūnisc, *rȳnisc, rēnisc (“mysterious, mystic”), equivalent to rune + -ish.

From Middle English runisch, a variant (by confusion) of renisch. Also rennish.

Questions about runish

What does runish mean?
Runish means of or relating to runes, runic inscription, or runic language; runic.
What part of speech is runish?
Runish is an adjective.

Words near runish in the dictionary

  1. runically
  2. runiform
  3. runing
  4. Runion
  5. Runions
  6. runish
  7. Runk
  8. Runkel
  9. Runkels
  10. runkle
  11. runkled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: runish (page history and authors). 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.

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