Cornish

American  

[kawr-nish] / ˈkɔr nɪʃ /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Cornwall, England, its inhabitants, or the Cornish language.

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noun

1. the Celtic language of Cornwall, extinct since c1800.

2. one of an English breed of chickens raised chiefly for crossing with other breeds to produce roasters.

Cornish British  

/ ˈkɔːnɪʃ /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Cornwall, its inhabitants, their former language, or their present-day dialect of English

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noun

1. a former language of Cornwall, belonging to the S Celtic branch of the Indo-European family and closely related to Breton: extinct by 1800

2. (functioning as plural) the natives or inhabitants of Cornwall

Etymology

Origin of Cornish

1350–1400; late Middle English, apparently syncopated variant of Middle English Cornwelisse. See Cornwall, -ish ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Cornish

Eventually Benjamin, no longer an enfeebled old man after more than a decade of life, finds the courage to escape his house and go—where else, in a Cornish village?—down to the pub.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

The charity said the new birds came from 56 successful breeding pairs meaning the average productivity of a Cornish chough nest was three fledglings.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

The charity said the Lizard was the prime breeding ground for the Cornish chough with 26 chicks, 11 more than 2025, emerging from eight nests on the peninsula.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

The former Conservative prime minister and his wife gave their youngest daughter Florence a middle name of Endellion in honour of the Cornish area where they were staying before she was born in 2010.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

We were in Cornish, a farming town twenty miles south of Buck’s Peak, when the station wagon drifted over the center line into the other lane, then left the highway.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

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