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.

Iranian parliamentarian Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for Iran's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, wrote on X that the 14 points reported by Axios amounted to a US "wish list".

From BBC • May 6, 2026

She has a wish list for the things they should and shouldn’t do.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026

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

"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

We keep walking and talking, building our missed-food wish list: Flaming Hot Cheetos, chocolate cake with real buttercream frosting, In-N-Out Animal Style burgers, Badmaash fried chicken, biryani, kheema paratha, samosas, food truck tacos, salmon sushi.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

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