How to say “body” in 51 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 Afrikaans, where lyk is the 120th most used word.
- Afrikaans lyk dead body; corpse #120
- Arabic يد an appendage of a body #723
- Armenian մեռել corpse, dead body #546
- Basque gorputz #656
- Bengali শরীর #493
- Bosnian tijelo #687
- Bulgarian тяло body, flesh #923
- Catalan cos #439
- Chinese 身上 one's body; one's health #135
- Croatian tijelo #519
- Czech tělo #548
- Danish krop #846
- Dutch water body of water #413
- English head The part of the body of an animal or human… #284
- Esperanto korpo #556
- Estonian keha #637
- Finnish ruumis #1,244
- French corps #351
- Galician corpo body, torso #396
- German körper #778
- Greek σώμα #581
- Hebrew גוף a body #1,142
- Hindi सेना army, military, body of troops #436
- Hungarian test #2,143
- Icelandic lík body, living body #721
- Indonesian kepala head: the part of the body of an animal or… #313
- Italian corpo #486
- Korean 몸 #541
- Latvian līķi dead body, corpse #1,328
- Lithuanian kūną #676
- Macedonian тело #523
- Malay badan #559
- Malayalam ശരീരം #244
- Norwegian kroppen a body #857
- Persian بدن #324
- Polish ciało #569
- Portuguese corpo #392
- Romanian corp #1,309
- Russian тело #581
- Serbian telo #566
- Slovak telo #335
- Slovenian truplo body, corpse #345
- Spanish cuerpo #434
- Swedish kropp a body #684
- Tagalog katawan #421
- Tamil உடல் #417
- Telugu అంగము the body #658
- Turkish vücut human body #1,676
- Ukrainian тіло #840
- Urdu جسم #451
- Vietnamese tắm to wash a live body, usually your own; to… #901
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.