ilish
An Indian and Bangladeshi name for the hilsa fish (Tenualosa ilisha), one of the most prized and culturally significant fish in South Asian cuisine, particularly in Bengali cooking.
Definitions
An Indian and Bangladeshi name for the hilsa fish (Tenualosa ilisha), one of the most prized and culturally significant fish in South Asian cuisine, particularly in Bengali cooking. Known for its rich, oily flesh and distinctive flavor, ilish is often called the 'queen of fish' in Bengali culture. It plays a central role in festivals, weddings, and everyday cooking in West Bengal and Bangladesh. The name 'ilish' is the Bengali term, while 'hilsa' is the more widely used variant in English.
She insisted that no Durga Puja celebration was complete without a proper ilish bhapa — steamed hilsa in mustard paste.
Comments
(India) A fish, the hilsa.
Comments
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "ilish".
🗺️About Regional & Other slang
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.
Tags
Other words near "ilish" (I)
Browse all slang words starting with I.
Related terms
People also read
Semantically related
- bluefish51%
A voracious fish () found in waters of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
- surmai49%
(India) A fish, the Indo-Pacific king mackerel ().
- gibfish49%
(UK, dialect) A male salmon.
- illy49%
In US hip-hop slang, 'illy' means cool, fresh, or impressively skilled -- a positive intensifier with roots in 1990s East Coast rap culture. The word played on the negative 'ill' being flipped into a positive (a common semantic reversal in hip-hop). As an adverb it can also mean badly or poorly, but the positive hip-hop sense is the more culturally salient meaning.