wishes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of wish.

   The children whispered their wishes as the star fell across the sky.

   Her final wishes were set down carefully in a sealed letter.

   Note

   The plural adds a full syllable, -es, because wish ends in a sh sound that a bare -s cannot follow, so it is said in two syllables. It covers every noun meaning of wish: hopes and longings, the spoken wishes of magic and fairy tale, and the things longed for. Less obviously, it is also the plural of wish meaning a water meadow, an unrelated sense with the same spelling.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of wish.

   She wishes her recovering colleague a swift return to health.

   He quietly wishes that the long meeting would end sooner.

   Note

   Here the -es marks a verb after he, she or it, and shares its spelling and two-syllable sound with the plural noun. One form carries several constructions: someone wishes for a better outcome, wishes to leave, or wishes a friend well. For an unlikely outcome, modern English puts would or a past form after wishes that. Using may there, as in she wishes that he may prosper, now sounds archaic.

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