Princess, Prince, Sword: Fantasy Words in 40+ Languages

Princess is princesa in Spanish, πριγκίπισσα in Greek, 公主 in Chinese and putri in Indonesian. Prince is príncipe in Spanish, 王子 in Chinese and شاهزاده in Persian, and sword is espada in Spanish, Schwert in German and तलवार in Hindi. Below are 12 fantasy words, from princess and king to ghost and devil, in more than 40 languages and 14 scripts.

Every word comes from real usage data, not a phrasebook, and each section links to the full list on our free Say it in any language tool.

#Where these words come from

Each /tools/say page lists an English word in up to 53 languages. The words are ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles (the OpenSubtitles 2018 frequency lists) and matched to English through Wiktionary, so every page shows where the word ranks in its language.

Two things to know:

• Frequency lists count spellings, not meanings. If a word for “sword” is spelled like an everyday verb, it ranks high for the wrong reason. We only print rows whose meaning matches, and we say where a row on the full page means something else.
• The lists are lowercase. We capitalize German nouns (Prinzessin, Schwert) the way you’d see them in a sentence.

Fantasy films and series are a big part of any subtitle collection, which is why words like sword and witch turn up in more than 30 languages each.

#Princess in different languages

Afrikaans prinses (#379) is the most common, just ahead of Chinese 公主 (#416) and Indonesian putri (#484). Most European languages borrowed the same word, so princesa, prinses and prenses are easy to spot. Hungarian goes its own way: hercegnő is herceg (prince) plus nő (woman). The Korean row, 공주님, carries the polite ending 님, the form you would use when speaking to a princess.

Three rows on the full page mean something else first. Arabic سيدة is glossed “mistress, princess” and is the everyday word for a lady, Hebrew שרה is glossed “lady, princess, queen” and is also the name Sarah, and Hindi रानी is glossed “queen, princess”. We left all three out.

See “princess” in all 38 languages →

#Prince in different languages

Armenian արքայազն (#424) is the most common, followed by Urdu شہزادہ (#517) and Chinese 王子 (#582). Many of these words simply say “king’s son”. Chinese 王子 is king (王) plus son (子), and Korean 왕자 is the same word read the Korean way. Hindi and Bengali राजकुमार / রাজকুমার join raja (king) and kumar (young man), and Persian شاهزاده and Urdu شہزادہ are “born of the shah”. Polish książę is glossed “prince; duke”.

Watch the full page. Its Russian row is принцесса, which is the word for princess, not prince. Arabic سيد is glossed “master, lord, prince”, but it is the everyday word for “sir” and “Mr.”. Hebrew נגיד is glossed as a leader or chief, and in modern Hebrew it is also a casual “let’s say”.

See “prince” in all 41 languages →

#King in different languages

King ranks high in many languages: Georgian მეფე ranks #82, Armenian արքա #200 and Tagalog hari #217. Russian король, Czech král, Hungarian király and Turkish kral all go back to Karl, the name of Charlemagne. Hindi राजा and Indonesian raja are one word in two scripts, both from Sanskrit.

Two rows on the full page aren’t the word for king: the Tamil one is the word for prince (it appears on the prince page too), and the English one is “kingdom”. The Albanian (mbreti) and Romanian (regele) rows include the article, so they mean “the king”.

See “king” in all 48 languages →

#Queen in different languages

Queen has the longest page here, with 50 rows. Georgian დედოფალი (#235) is the most common, then Catalan reina (#436). Chinese 女王 is literally “woman king”, and the data glosses it “queen regnant”, a queen who rules in her own right. Korean 퀸 is the English word “queen” written in Hangul. Arabic ملكة and Persian ملکه are the same word.

The German row on the full page is miss, glossed “title for a beauty queen”, and there is no row for Königin. Hebrew שרה appears here as well, and it is better known as “lady” and the name Sarah.

See “queen” in all 50 languages →

#Magic in different languages

Magic has the fewest languages of the 12, at 32. It is most common in Urdu, where جادو ranks #264. Persian writes it the same way, and Hindi जादू and Bengali জাদু are the same word in other scripts. Chinese 魔法 and Korean 마법 are one word too. Several rows are glossed “magic, sorcery, witchcraft”, because many languages don’t separate stage magic from the spell-casting kind.

Turkish büyü is the word for a spell, but it is also spelled like “grow up!”, which may push its rank up. The Malayalam row, മായ, is glossed “maya” first (illusion), and the Telugu row is a verb, “to charm”, so we left both out. Our powerful words post has magic next to soul, destiny and freedom.

See “magic” in all 32 languages →

#Sword in different languages

Tagalog espada (#209) is the most common, spelled exactly like the Spanish. Vietnamese kiếm (#383) comes next, though it also means “to look for” and “to earn”, which helps its rank. Two families are easy to see: Spanish espada, Italian spada, French épée and Greek σπαθί go back to one Greek word, and German Schwert, Dutch zwaard and Swedish svärd are cousins of English “sword”. Hindi तलवार and Urdu تلوار are one word.

Korean 칼 ranks #418, but it is glossed “knife, sword” and means a knife first. The Armenian row is glossed “thin sword, rapier, epee”, a fencing sword, and we couldn’t confirm the Malayalam one, so we left all three out.

See “sword” in all 41 languages →

#Monster in different languages

Chinese 怪物 (#477) is the most common, and Korean 괴물 is the same word. German, Dutch, Swedish and Indonesian simply say monster. Croatian čudovište and Bulgarian чудовище are built on the Slavic word for a wonder or miracle, čudo. The Italian row on the full page is the plural, mostri (monsters).

Tagalog halimaw (#676) is glossed “beast; monster; ferocious animal”, so it is closer to “beast”. The Macedonian row, али, is a short everyday word, not a monster, and the English row is “creature”.

See “monster” in all 33 languages →

#Hero in different languages

Chinese 英雄 (#353) is the most common, and Korean 영웅 is the same word. English “hero” comes from Greek ήρωας, and so do héroe, eroe and герой. Turkish kahraman is borrowed from Persian قهرمان, which also means “champion”. Hindi नायक and Tamil நாயகன் (#482) are the hero of a story, the leading man; Slovenian junak (#574) is the next most common after the Tamil. Dutch and German share held (Held in German).

We left out the Urdu row, which we couldn’t confirm, and the Polish one is an inflected form.

See “hero” in all 42 languages →

#Witch in different languages

Esperanto sorĉistino (#575) is the most common, then Slovenian čarovnica (#789). The Esperanto ending -ino makes a word female, the same ending you see in princino (princess) and reĝino (queen). Greek μάγισσα comes from the same root as μαγεία (magic). Lithuanian and Latvian share ragana, and Arabic ساحرة and Persian ساحره are one word. Chinese 女巫 and Korean 마녀 both begin or end with “woman” (女, 녀).

Tagalog bruha, from Spanish bruja, is glossed “hag; witch”, and the Albanian row is a specific folk creature, a vampiric witch, so we left both out.

See “witch” in all 33 languages →

#Ghost in different languages

Slovenian duh (#477) is the most common, then Vietnamese ma (#538). The Slavic duh / дух is glossed “ghost, spirit” in several languages, so it covers both. Greek φάντασμα gave Spanish and Italian fantasma and French fantôme. Dutch geest is a cousin of English “ghost”, and Afrikaans spook is where English got “spook”.

Arabic روح and Georgian სული are glossed “spirit, ghost” and mean soul or spirit first. The Malay row, puntianak, is one particular female ghost from folklore, not the general word. We left all three out.

See “ghost” in all 37 languages →

#Angel in different languages

Chinese 天使 (#489) is the most common, then Slovenian angel (#594). Angel is the one page where every row is glossed as the word itself. It is also a word about messengers: English “angel” comes from Greek for “messenger”, Chinese 天使 is “heaven’s envoy” (Korean 천사 is the same word), and Telugu దేవదూత is “messenger of the gods”. Persian فرشته and Urdu فرشتہ are one word, and Indonesian malaikat and Turkish melek come from Arabic.

One catch: without vowel marks, Arabic ملك is spelled the same as the word for king, and Hebrew מלאך (angel) looks a lot like מלך (king). The Spanish form in the data is the plural.

See “angel” in all 41 languages →

#Devil in different languages

Eight devil rows rank in the top 200 of their language, more than for any other word here: Icelandic fjandinn is #130, Norwegian faen #138, Albanian dreq #154 and Estonian kurat #178. People use these as swear words, the way English speakers say “damn” or “what the devil”, and subtitles are full of them. Two families run through the table: Italian diavolo, Greek διάβολο and German Teufel go back to Greek diabolos, while Arabic شيطان, Hindi शैतान and Turkish şeytan are all “shaitan”.

This page has the most false matches. Its Spanish row is mala, which means “bad”, its Swedish row is katt, which means “cat”, and its Korean row, 마, is a syllable found in many other words. We left those out.

See “devil” in all 43 languages →

#Mix-ups to watch for

Frequency data is honest about what people say, but it can’t tell a sword from a verb that looks the same. The ones worth knowing:

• Lady, not princess. Arabic سيدة and Hebrew שרה show up on the princess page, but they mean “lady” first.
• Princess on the prince page. The Russian row for prince is принцесса, which is the princess.
• Knife, not sword. Korean 칼 is glossed “knife, sword”.
• Bad, cat and a small word. Spanish mala (devil page), Swedish katt (devil page) and Macedonian али (monster page) are false matches.
• King or angel? Arabic ملك can be read either way, and Hebrew מלך and מלאך differ by one letter.
• “The” is built in. Albanian mbreti and Romanian regele mean “the king”, and Swedish prinsessan is “the princess”.

If you’re reading a new script to check a word like this, the Georgian, Korean, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet pages show every letter.

#Practice fantasy words with native speakers

Fantasy words are easy to bring into a conversation, because almost everyone has a favorite film, series, game or fairy tale. Tell your partner about one, and you’ll need king, sword and monster in the first few sentences.

• Retell a story you both know. A fairy tale or a famous film gives you the plot, so all your effort goes into the words.
• Ask what the children’s stories are. Which witch or ghost do kids grow up with where your partner lives? That’s something a table can’t tell you.
• Check the swear words. Before you say faen or kurat out loud, ask how strong it sounds.

On LangX, you’re matched with people who speak the language you’re learning and are learning yours. Write a few sentences about your favorite story; if you get a word wrong, your partner can hold your message to correct it. Corrections are unlimited on every plan, and translation is built into the chat. The free plan gives you five new conversations a day, with replies unlimited. You can get the app here, or read how to find a language exchange partner first.

9:41

Lucía M. Online

Today

Hold any message to correct it — corrections are the most useful thing you can send.

¿Cómo fue tu fin de semana? Cuéntame en inglés si quieres. How was your weekend? Tell me in English if you like. 09:12

Fui a la playa con mi hermana. Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. 09:14 · Read

Correction from Lucía Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. Hacía mucho calor y no llevé agua. The «yo» isn't wrong, it just sounds emphatic — like you specifically forgot. 09:15

Message in Spanish…

For more word lists, see nature words, emotion words, family words and basic words in different languages. To see which words come first in a language, try the most common words lists.

#FAQ

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

Spanish princesa, French princesse, German Prinzessin, Greek πριγκίπισσα, Hungarian hercegnő, Urdu شہزادی, Chinese 公主, Korean 공주님 and Indonesian putri. The princess page has 38 languages.

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

Spanish príncipe, French prince, German Prinz, Polish książę, Armenian արքայազն, Persian شاهزاده, Hindi राजकुमार, Chinese 王子 and Korean 왕자. The prince page has 41 languages.

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

Spanish espada, French épée, Italian spada, German Schwert, Greek σπαθί, Arabic سيف, Hindi तलवार, Turkish kılıç and Vietnamese kiếm. The sword page has 41 languages.

#How do you say “magic” and “monster” in other languages?

Magic is magia in Spanish, μαγεία in Greek, جادو in Urdu and Persian, and 魔法 in Chinese. Monster is monstruo in Spanish, Monster in German, canavar in Turkish and 怪物 in Chinese. See the magic and monster pages for every language.

#Why do some pages list a strange word as the most common?

The ranks come from counting spellings in subtitles. When a word for “devil” or “sword” is spelled like “bad”, “cat” or a common verb, it ranks high for the wrong reason. We left those rows out and gave the most common real match instead.