Universe, Space, Star: Cosmic Words in 40+ Languages

Universe is universo in Spanish, 宇宙 in Chinese, کائنات in Urdu and heelal in Afrikaans. Space is espacio in Spanish, Raum in German and 太空 in Chinese, and star is estrella in Catalan, ستاره in Persian and yıldız in Turkish. Below are five cosmic words (universe, space, star, planet and night) in 46 languages and more than a dozen 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 “night” is spelled like “I don’t want”, it ranks very high for the wrong reason. We only print rows whose meaning matches, and we name the ones we left out.
• The lists are lowercase. We capitalize German nouns (Raum, Planeten, Nacht) the way you’d see them in a sentence.

Sun, sky, moon and earth are already covered in our post on nature words in different languages, so they don’t get a section here. For light, dark and dream, see our beautiful words post, which has a section for each.

#Universe in different languages

Chinese 宇宙 (#463) is the most common real match, and its gloss also covers “cosmos” and “space”. Half the table is the Latin universum in local spelling. The rest built their own word from “all” or “world”: the data glosses Ukrainian світ as “world”, and всесвіт starts with все-, “all”. Bengali মহাবিশ্ব adds মহা (“great”) to বিশ্ব, which the data glosses as “globe; world”. Malayalam പ്രപഞ്ചം and Tamil பிரபஞ்சம் are one word in two scripts.

The rows that rank higher are mostly “world”. Greek κόσμο (#262) is the source of “cosmos”, but it’s also the everyday word for the world and for people in general, which is why it ranks so high. Bulgarian свят (#359) is glossed “world, earth, universe”, and Persian جهان and Georgian სამყარო are glossed “world” as well as “universe”.

See “universe” in all 31 languages →

#Space in different languages

“Space” is two words in many languages: the space around you, and outer space. Slovenian prostor (#344) is the most common real match of the first kind, glossed “space, room”, and Tamil விண்வெளி (#557) of the second. German Raum and Indonesian ruang are also the ordinary words for a room.

This is the page with the most false matches. Dutch naar (#36) means “to, towards”, Polish miejsce is “place”, Korean 자리 is “place, site”, and the Arabic row means a parking space. The Vietnamese, Latvian, Turkish and Armenian rows are words like “under”, “between” and “in front of”, which Wiktionary explains in terms of space.

See “space” in all 42 languages →

#Star in different languages

Basque izar (#571) is the most common, just ahead of Persian ستاره (#595) and Slovenian zvezda (#635). You can see two families at a glance: the Germanic stjerne, ster, stjärna, and the Slavic hvězda, zvezda, звезда. Persian ستاره and Urdu ستارہ are one word. Several forms in the data are plurals (Italian stelle, Polish gwiazdy, Afrikaans sterre), since people often talk about the stars.

Skip the celebrity rows on the full page: Chinese 明星, Korean 스타, Hindi स्टार and Tagalog artista mean a movie star. So does French star; the French star in the sky is not in this data. Our nature words post has a second star table, with Macedonian ѕвезда, Hebrew כוכב and Tamil நட்சத்திரம்.

See “star” in all 44 languages →

#Planet in different languages

Esperanto planedo (#417) and Tamil கிரகம் (#434) are the most common. Most of Europe uses the Greek word, which meant “wanderer”: planets move across the sky while the stars stay put. Chinese 行星 and Korean 행성 are the same idea, a “moving star”. Hindi ग्रह, Bengali গ্রহ and Tamil கிரகம் share one root, and Persian سیاره and Urdu سیارہ are one word.

Two rows to skip: Catalan món (#208) means “world”, and Slovak mesiac means “moon”. German Planeten is the plural, and also the singular in every case except the subject (der Planet).

See “planet” in all 39 languages →

#Night in different languages

Night is one of the most common words on this page: Telugu రాత్రి ranks #72, Armenian գիշեր #78 and Malayalam രാത്രി #79. From noche to Nacht to ночь, the European words are visibly related, and they are. Hindi रात and Urdu رات are one word in two scripts, and so are Telugu రాత్రి and Malayalam രാത്രി.

Skip three rows on the full page: Korean 거야 (#9) is an error in the source data, Slovenian nočem (#147) is spelled like “I don’t want”, and Afrikaans gisteraand means “last night”. Our basic words post has night next to morning and good morning.

See “night” in all 53 languages →

#Mix-ups to watch for

These words are short and common, so they collide with other words more than most. The patterns worth knowing:

• Universe, world and earth overlap. Greek κόσμο, Bulgarian свят, Georgian სამყარო and Persian جهان all lean toward “world”. Catalan món turns up as “planet”, and Indonesian alam is on the universe page but also means nature.
• Space as in room. Polish miejsce, Korean 자리, Norwegian plass and Icelandic pláss are about a place or room, not the cosmos.
• Star as in celebrity. Chinese 明星, Korean 스타, Hindi स्टार, French star and Tagalog artista are film stars.

For earth and moon, where the same thing happens (moon and month share a word in Persian, Turkish and Tagalog), see the nature words post. The strong words post and fantasy words post cover more words people use in names and stories.

#Practice these words with native speakers

Space and night words come up naturally in conversation: what you can see in the night sky where you live, whether you’d go to space if you could. They’re good language exchange conversation topics because everyone has an answer.

On LangX, you’re matched with people who speak the language you’re learning and are learning yours. Ask your partner which of the words above they’d really use. Is 宇宙 the universe or outer space to them? Does their word for star also mean a celebrity? If you get something 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. LangX won’t hand you a list of vocabulary; the people there will tell you how the words are actually used. 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…

If a language uses another script, the alphabet pages show every letter. To see where these words sit among the rest of a language’s vocabulary, try its most common words list.

#FAQ

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

Spanish, Italian and Portuguese universo, French univers, Dutch universum, Afrikaans heelal, Ukrainian всесвіт, Croatian svemir, Urdu کائنات and Chinese 宇宙. The universe page has 31 languages.

#How do you say “space” in other languages?

For space as in room or area: Spanish espacio, French espace, German Raum, Czech prostor and Indonesian ruang. For outer space: Chinese 太空, Hindi अंतरिक्ष, Tamil விண்வெளி and Hebrew חלל. The space page has 42 languages, some of them false matches.

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

Portuguese estrela, Swedish stjärna, Czech hvězda, Bulgarian звезда, Arabic نجمة, Persian ستاره, Turkish yıldız, Indonesian bintang and Basque izar. The star page has 44 languages; skip the rows that mean a celebrity.

#Why do some pages list a strange word near the top?

The ranks come from counting spellings in subtitles. When a word for “space” or “night” is spelled like a common word such as “to” or “I don’t want”, it ranks high for the wrong reason. We left those rows out and used the most common real match instead.