Synonyms

wish list

American

noun

a usually unwritten list of things one wishes for.

Money is on everyone's wish list.

wish list British

noun

a list of things desired by a person or organization

the Polish government's wish list

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of wish list

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If you have a wish list of stocks or closed-end funds that you have wanted to buy if they go on sale, now is the time to get it ready.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 12, 2026

Lara, the regulator, appears exasperated by some insurers’ reluctance to re-enter the market, despite getting pretty much everything on their wish list.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

"A triplet superconductor is high on the wish list of many physicists working in the field of solid state physics," said Professor Jacob Linder.

From Science Daily • Feb. 21, 2026

But she was all smiles, walking away with memories of a lifetime and the money to buy a few things long on her wish list.

From Barron's • Jan. 26, 2026

They compiled a wish list of a half dozen candidates, among them the young Yale instructor widely considered back East to be the best of the current crop of fellows: Ernest O. Lawrence.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023