Freedom, Soul, Destiny: Powerful Words in 20+ Languages

Freedom is libertad in Spanish, ελευθερία in Greek, 자유 in Korean and آزادی in Persian. Soul is alma, âme, ψυχή or आत्मा. Below are 20 of the most searched “big” words (freedom, soul, destiny, love, hope and more), each in a handful of languages picked for their variety of scripts, with a link to the full list for every word.

Every word here comes from our free Say it in any language tool, which shows 976 English words across up to 53 languages. The lists are not machine translations. They come from real usage, so each word is one people actually say, and each has a rank that tells you how common it is in that language.

#Where these words come from

Each /tools/say page is built from two open sources:

• Frequency counts from film and TV subtitles (the OpenSubtitles 2018 lists published in the FrequencyWords project). This is how we know that a word is in everyday use, and where it ranks.
• English meanings from Wiktionary, which link each word back to an English one like “freedom” or “soul”.

That has two consequences worth knowing before you copy anything:

1. You sometimes get the form people say, not the dictionary form. Subtitles are speech, so a row can be an inflected form, a verb (“I love”) rather than a noun (“love”), or a form used when talking to someone directly. Where it matters, the full page shows the English meaning next to the word.
2. The lists are lowercase. They come from word counts, and counts ignore capital letters. German capitalizes every noun, so in the tables below we write German nouns the way they are written in a sentence: Freiheit, Seele, Traum.

For each word you get a short table, one line on what stands out, and a link to see it in every language we have.

#Freedom in different languages

Persian and Urdu use the same written word, آزادی. The Bengali মুক্তি leans toward “liberation”. Of all 40 languages, freedom is most common in Galician, where liberdade ranks #426.

See “freedom” in all 40 languages →

#Soul in different languages

The Greek ψυχή is the word English borrowed for “psyche”. In Persian (جان) and Turkish (can) the word for soul also means “life”.

See “soul” in all 48 languages →

#Destiny and fate in different languages

Most languages use one word for both. Where they split, “fate” pulls toward luck and chance: Greek τύχη, Italian caso and Korean 운 all show up on the fate page with meanings like “chance” or “luck”.

See “destiny” in all 32 languages → · See “fate” in all 32 languages →

#Love in different languages

Love is one of just 24 words on the site found in all 53 languages. It is most common in Malay, where kasih ranks #69. Many rows on the full page are verbs as people say them. The Korean one, 사랑해, means “I love you”.

See “love” in all 53 languages →

#Magic in different languages

Hindi जादू and Urdu جادو are one word in two scripts, and Persian writes it جادو too. Urdu is where it is used most (#264).

See “magic” in all 32 languages →

#Universe in different languages

The Greek form here is κόσμο, the source of “cosmos”. Greek is also the language where the word is most common (#262). The Croatian svemir means both “space” and “universe”.

See “universe” in all 31 languages →

#Hero in different languages

English “hero” comes from Greek, and so do the Spanish and Russian words above. Persian قهرمان also means “champion”. Hero is most common in Chinese, where 英雄 ranks #353.

See “hero” in all 42 languages →

#Victory in different languages

The Greek νίκη is Nike, the goddess of victory. Hindi जीत and Urdu جیت are the same word, and Urdu is where victory ranks highest (#433).

See “victory” in all 39 languages →

#Light in different languages

“Light” has two meanings in English, and the full page shows both. Estonian kerge, Indonesian ringan and Urdu ہلکا mean light as in “not heavy”, so check which one you want.

See “light” in all 53 languages →

#Dark in different languages

Some of these are “darkness” rather than “dark” (the Greek, Romanian and Korean rows). The Turkish kara also means “black”.

See “dark” in all 42 languages →

#Dream in different languages

The Tagalog pangarap and Turkish hayal are the dream you hope for rather than the one you have at night. Dream is most common in Malayalam, where സ്വപ്നം ranks #213.

See “dream” in all 42 languages →

#Hope in different languages

People say “I hope” more often than they say “hope”, so many rows on the full page are verbs. Chinese 希望 (hope, wish) is the 25th most used word in the Chinese list.

See “hope” in all 51 languages →

#Peace in different languages

Several of these are also greetings. Hebrew שלום and Arabic سلام are how people say hello, and Korean 안녕 (“peace; tranquility”) is the everyday “hi” and “bye”, which is why it ranks #100.

See “peace” in all 48 languages →

#Courage in different languages

This page shows exactly why you check before you ink. For French and Hebrew, the word our data finds for courage is slang for “balls” (couilles, ביצים), because that is how people often say it out loud. You probably don’t want either of those on your arm.

See “courage” in all 35 languages →

#Heart in different languages

Some languages separate the heart you feel with from the one that beats. Korean 마음 and Persian خاطر are glossed “mind, heart”, closer to “what’s on your mind” than to the organ.

See “heart” in all 51 languages →

#Moon in different languages

In Persian, Turkish and Indonesian the word for moon also means “month”, which helps explain why ماه, ay and bulan rank so high.

See “moon” in all 42 languages →

#Star in different languages

Look out for the celebrity kind of star. On the full page, Chinese 明星, Korean 스타 and Tagalog artista mean a movie star, not one in the sky.

See “star” in all 44 languages →

#Sea in different languages

Danish have ranks #54 for “sea”, mostly because it is spelled exactly like the Danish verb “to have”. Frequency lists count spellings, not meanings.

See “sea” in all 46 languages →

#Nature in different languages

Hindi and Bengali use the same word in two scripts. “Nature” can also mean a person’s character, and some rows on the full page (Chinese 性格, Armenian խառնվածք) carry that sense.

See “nature” in all 31 languages →

#Memory in different languages

Arabic ذكرى and Malay kenangan mean a memory you look back on, a remembrance. Hindi याद and Urdu یاد are the same word.

See “memory” in all 41 languages →

#More powerful words people look up

These don’t get a table here, but each has its own full page: princess, prince, sword, mountain, river, wind, energy, blood, war, monster, boss, idiot and mine. For people rather than ideas, see family words in different languages.

#Using these words for tattoos, names, writing and gifts

People look up words like these for four reasons.

• Tattoos. A short word, often in a script you find beautiful. Korean, Georgian, Tamil, Hebrew and Arabic letters look good even to someone who can’t read them.
• Names. Pets, boats, businesses, characters, sometimes children. Many languages have a word that sounds good in English too.
• Writing and worldbuilding. Fantasy writers and game designers borrow real words for places and spells. Words like magic, sword and universe are a good place to start.
• Gifts. A card, a bracelet or a print with a word in your partner’s or friend’s language.

Every one of those uses has the same risk. A word can be correct in a dictionary and still be wrong on your skin. It might be a verb form, a slang meaning, the wrong gender, or a word that native speakers only say in one particular context. The courage table above is a real example.

For writing a script correctly (Korean, Georgian, Hebrew, Arabic and others), the alphabet pages show each letter and how it sounds. If you like how a language looks and want to go further, its most common words list is the best place to start.

#Checking a word with a native speaker on LangX

LangX is a language exchange app with a free plan. It matches you with people who speak the language you’re curious about and are learning yours. You can send a photo of your design and ask what they think. They can correct your message directly, and there’s translation inside the chat if you get stuck. Corrections are unlimited on every plan, and the free plan lets you start 5 new conversations a day, which is plenty for asking three or four people about one word.

It isn’t a translation service, and nobody there has to answer. What it gives you is real people who use the language every day. That’s exactly who should check a tattoo. If you want to keep going after that, our guide to language exchange explains how it works. Get LangX.

#FAQ

#What is the most beautiful word in another language?

That depends on your taste, but words people choose often have a meaning English needs a phrase for. Korean 안녕 means “peace” and is also the everyday “hi” and “bye”. Greek νίκη (“victory”) gave us the name Nike.

#How do you say “soul” in different languages?

Spanish and Portuguese alma, French âme, Italian anima, German Seele, Greek ψυχή, Hindi आत्मा and Korean 영혼. The soul page has 48 languages.

#Is it safe to get a tattoo from an online translation?

Not without a check. A word list or a translator can give you a verb form, slang, or a word with a second meaning you didn’t intend. Ask at least one native speaker, and ideally two, before you commit.

#Why do some words have a different meaning on the full page?

The data comes from how often words are used in film and TV subtitles, and each word is matched to English through Wiktionary. Most matches are exact. Some are the closest common word, and those show the English meaning next to them so you can see the difference.

#Which words exist in all 53 languages?

Among the words on this page, love and light appear in all 53. Every Say it in any language page shows its count in the title, and every page has at least 30.