How to say “attack” in 46 languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
It is commonest in Urdu, where حملہ is the 193rd most used word.
- Afrikaans hartaanval heart attack #1,622
- Albanian sulm attack, charge #835
- Arabic هجوم #1,015
- Armenian հարձակում attack, assault #763
- Bengali হামলা #505
- Bosnian napad attack, assault, aggression #719
- Bulgarian атака attack, assault, charge, storm #1,409
- Catalan atac #687
- Chinese 回合 attack and counter-attack #1,887
- Croatian napad attack, assault, aggression #761
- Czech útok #1,306
- Danish angreb to attack, assault #872
- Dutch aangevallen to attack #1,623
- English weapon An instrument of attack or defense in combat… #1,265
- Esperanto atakis to attack #1,559
- Estonian ründama to attack #2,231
- French attaque to attack #925
- Galician ataque to attack #924
- German angriff attack, offensive, strike, assault,… #1,535
- Greek επίθεση attack, offensive #795
- Hebrew מכה an attack, an assault, a hit, a wound #939
- Hindi हमला attack, assault #495
- Hungarian támadás #1,732
- Icelandic árás attack, assault #656
- Indonesian senjata an instrument of attack or defense in combat… #324
- Italian attacco attack, assault #1,129
- Korean 공격 #861
- Latvian uzbrukt to attack #1,767
- Macedonian напад attack, assault #533
- Malay menyerang to attack; to assault; to strike #597
- Malayalam അറ്റാക്ക് heart attack #522
- Norwegian angrep to attack #916
- Persian حمله #237
- Polish atak #1,333
- Portuguese ataque to attack #765
- Romanian atac #932
- Serbian napad attack, assault, aggression #757
- Slovenian napad #325
- Spanish ataque #904
- Swedish anfall attack, assault #2,390
- Tagalog dale unprovoked attack #1,074
- Tamil தாக்குதல் #547
- Telugu దాడి #242
- Turkish saldırı attack, invasion #1,078
- Ukrainian напад attack, assault #1,762
- Urdu حملہ attack; invasion; assault #193
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.