How to say “body” in 51 different 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.
- cuerpo/ˈkweɾpo/ Spanish
- тело[ˈtʲeɫə] Russian
- 몸[mo̞m] Korean
- σώμα/ˈsoma/ Greek
- גוף/ɡuf/ Hebrew
- শরীর/ʃoɾiɾ/ Bengali
“body” in Spanish: cuerpo · French: corps · German: körper · Italian: corpo · Portuguese: corpo · Korean: 몸 · Russian: тело · Greek: σώμα
It is commonest in Malayalam, where ശരീരം is the 244th most used word.
Body in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans lyk/ləik/ dead body; corpse #120
- Arabic يد/jad/ an appendage of a body #723
- Armenian մեռել/meˈrel/ corpse, dead body #546
- Basque gorputz/ɡorput͡s̻/ #656
- Bengali শরীর/ʃoɾiɾ/ #493
- Bosnian tijelo/tjêːlo/ #687
- Bulgarian тяло[ˈtʲa̟ɫo] body, flesh #923
- Catalan cos[ˈkɔs] #439
- Chinese 身上/ʂən⁵⁵ ʂɑŋ⁵¹/ one's body; one's health #135
- Croatian tijelo/tjêːlo/ #519
- Czech tělo[ˈcɛlo] #548
- Danish krop/krɔp/ #846
- Dutch water[ʋaːtər] body of water #413
- English head/hɛd/ The part of the body of an animal or human… #284
- Esperanto korpo/ˈkorpo/ #556
- Estonian keha/ˈkehɑ/ #637
- Finnish ruumis/ˈruːmis/ #1,244
- French corps/kɔʁ/ #351
- Galician corpo/ˈkoɾpo/ body, torso #396
- German körper/ˈkœrpər/ #778
- Greek σώμα/ˈsoma/ #581
- Hebrew גוף/ɡuf/ a body #1,142
- Hindi सेना/seː.nɑː/ army, military, body of troops #436
- Hungarian test[ˈtɛʃt] #2,143
- Icelandic lík[ˈliːk] body, living body #721
- Indonesian kepala/kəˈpala/ head: the part of the body of an animal or… #313
- Italian corpo/ˈkɔr.po/ #486
- Korean 몸[mo̞m] #541
- Latvian līķi/ˈliːci/ dead body, corpse #1,328
- Lithuanian kūną[¹ˈkuːnɑː] #676
- Macedonian тело[ˈtɛɫɔ] #523
- Malay badan/ˈbadan/ #559
- Malayalam ശരീരം/ʃaɾiːɾam/ #244
- Norwegian kroppen/ˈkrɔpən/ a body #857
- Persian بدن[bæ.d̪ǽn] #324
- Polish ciało/ˈt͡ɕa.wɔ/ #569
- Portuguese corpo/ˈkoʁ.pu/ #392
- Romanian corp/ˈkorp/ #1,309
- Russian тело[ˈtʲeɫə] #581
- Serbian telo/ˈtɛlo/ #566
- Slovak telo/ˈcɛɫɔ/ #335
- Slovenian truplo/trùːplɔ/ body, corpse #345
- Spanish cuerpo/ˈkweɾpo/ #434
- Swedish kropp/ˈkrɔpː/ a body #684
- Tagalog katawan/kataˈwan/ #421
- Tamil உடல்/ʊɖɐl/ #417
- Telugu అంగము/ˈanɡamu/ the body #658
- Turkish vücut/vy.d͡ʒut/ human body #1,676
- Ukrainian тіло[ˈtʲiɫɔ] #840
- Urdu جسم/d͡ʒɪsm/ #451
- Vietnamese tắm[tam˧˦] to wash a live body, usually your own; to… #901
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.