Danish
adj, name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Danes, natives of Denmark. collective, usually
- 2 Ellipsis of Danish pastry. US, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, informal, uncountable
"Hotel food is reasonably good, and rather British, except for breakfasts, when most hotels serve ensaimades, a puff pastry half way between a croissant and a Danish."
- 3 Danish pastry, light sweet yeast-raised roll usually filled with fruit or cheese. countable, uncountable
"Get me a coffee and a cheese danish."
- 4 a Scandinavian language that is the official language of Denmark wordnet
- 5 light sweet yeast-raised roll usually filled with fruits or cheese wordnet
- 1 Of or pertaining to Denmark. not-comparable
"The Danish midfielder received life-saving treatment during his country’s game against Finland in June 2021, eventually being resuscitated and taken to hospital."
- 2 Characteristic of someone named Dan. not-comparable, rare
- 1 of or relating to or characteristic of Denmark or the Danes or their language wordnet
- 1 The language of Danes and Denmark. uncountable
- 2 A male given name.
Example
More examples"Here's my flag for Nynorsk. Because the philosophy of Nynorsk is based on the maximum divergence from Danish, Danish background of the flag is to be replaced with Icelandic, because Icelandic served as inspiration for the language creators. The flag is not rectangular in form, because... Well, that Nynorsk is strange after all."
Etymology
Alteration of Middle English Denish, Dench (under the influence of Dan — compare Dane), from Old English Denisċ (“Danish”), from Proto-Germanic *daniskaz. By surface analysis, Dane + -ish.
Borrowed from Urdu دَانِش (dāniś), from Classical Persian دَانِش (dāniš).
From Dan + -ish.
Etymology tree English Danish pastry English danish Ellipsis of Danish pastry.
Related phrases
More for "danish"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.