Daesh

Or Da'ish
Or Da'esh

[dah-eesh, dahsh]

noun

1. a name used to refer to ISIS/ISIL, the radical Sunni Muslim organization: use of this name is said to delegitimize the group's claim to be an "Islamic state."

Word History and Origins

Origin of Daesh¹

Acronym of the group's full Arabic name, al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham , translated as “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or the Levant)”