The Suffix -ish: The Suffix -ish, Part 3

The lists in this collection are arranged from easiest to most challenging. Distinguish yourself by learning them all, and relish the accomplishment!

Here are links to our lists in the collection: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
11 words 254 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. feverish
    marked by intense agitation or emotion
    There's a strange look of feverish excitement in his bloodshot eyes, making them a sharper and brighter blue. The Boy Who Dared
    Originally feverish meant causing a high temperature or having a high temperature. By the 17th century, it gained another meaning to convey a sense of intense emotion or agitation as if affected by a high fever.
  2. sluggish
    moving slowly
    He’d been sluggish, slow to react when they’d ambushed the wagon, but that was all, and he could make up some excuse to account for it. Six of Crows
    Slugs move really, really slowly.
  3. peevish
    easily irritated or annoyed
    He remained that way, breathing hard with peevish anger. Grendel
    If you know that having a pet peeve means there's a particular thing that annoys you a lot, then you can see how being peevish would mean that you're easily annoyed in general.
  4. fiendish
    extremely evil or cruel
    The treetops rustled and branches snapped as more of the fiendish creatures raced to join the fight. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
    Fiend is Germanic, meaning "enemy."
  5. outlandish
    noticeably or extremely unconventional or unusual
    “Who will buy such a sari? Women want what they are used to, not some outlandish thing.” Homeless Bird
    If your behavior is so strange or alien that you must be from somewhere far, far, away, that's outlandish.
  6. slavish
    abjectly submissive; characteristic of a servant
    You want to be true to yourself, not a slavish follower of social expectations. Scientific American (Mar 5, 2020)
  7. brutish
    resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility
    A brutish monster with a pronounced underbite and plates down its spine hurled a wardrobe across the room. Fablehaven
  8. squeamish
    easily disturbed or disgusted by unpleasant things
    Mama had always been squeamish about lizards and snakes and bugs and things, and you could tell that it just made her flesh crawl to have to touch this one. Old Yeller
    If you're squeamish, you should probably avoid watching horror movies. The word comes from Anglo-Norman, but its origins are unclear.
  9. brackish
    slightly salty
    I took a drink from a horse trough and was thirsty enough not to care that the water was brackish and sour. The Name of the Wind
    Brak is a Dutch word for half-salty water that originally meant "worthless."
  10. snobbish
    tending to associate only with people of a similar background
    Elderly Mr. and Mrs. Riddle had been rich, snobbish, and rude, and their grown-up son, Tom, had been, if anything, worse. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
    A snob was originally a working-class person, but over time its meaning evolved, first referring to a lower-class person who imitated someone wealthier and more cultured, and eventually becoming someone who dislikes people or culture they think is beneath them.
  11. ghoulish
    suggesting the horror of death and decay
    At first I am horrified by the ghoulish skinned squirrels, as red and muscular as skinless human bodies in Miss Larsen’s science book. Orphan Train
Created on Fri Oct 23 11:14:09 EDT 2020 (updated Thu Apr 21 09:57:54 EDT 2022)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.