How to say “cat” in 43 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.
- gato/ˈɡato/ Spanish
- قطة/qitˤ.tˤa/ Arabic
- 고양이[ko̞ja̠ŋi] Korean
- बिल्ली/bɪl.liː/ Hindi
- γάτα/ˈɣa.ta/ Greek
- חתול/ħɔˈθul/ Hebrew
“cat” in Spanish: gato · French: chat · Italian: gatto · Portuguese: gato · Korean: 고양이 · Arabic: قطة · Hindi: बिल्ली · Turkish: kedi
It is commonest in Tamil, where பில்லி is the 363rd most used word.
Cat in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans kat/kat/ #878
- Albanian mace/mat͡sɛ/ #1,305
- Arabic قطة/qitˤ.tˤa/ a cat #1,976
- Armenian կատու/kɑˈtu/ #1,363
- Basque katu/katu/ #743
- Bosnian mačka/mât͡ʃka/ #1,948
- Catalan gat[ˈɡat] #2,098
- Croatian mačka/mât͡ʃka/ #1,885
- Czech kočka[ˈkot͡ʃka] #1,889
- Danish kat/kat/ #1,473
- Dutch kat/kɑt/ domestic cat, pussy, Felis silvestris catus #1,256
- English tom/tɑm/ The male of the domesticated cat, especially… #878
- Esperanto kato/ˈkato/ #1,220
- Estonian kass/ˈkɑsʲː/ #1,244
- Finnish kissa/ˈkisːɑ/ #2,450
- French chat/ʃa/ #1,372
- Galician gato/ˈɡato/ #992
- German katze/ˈkatsə/ house cat, Felis silvestris catus #1,690
- Greek γάτα/ˈɣa.ta/ #1,524
- Hebrew חתול/ħɔˈθul/ #1,306
- Hindi बिल्ली/bɪl.liː/ #1,833
- Icelandic köttur[ˈkʰœhtʏr] a cat #1,490
- Indonesian kucing/ˈkut͡ʃiŋ/ #922
- Italian gatto/ˈɡat.to/ #1,667
- Korean 고양이[ko̞ja̠ŋi] #563
- Latvian kaķis[ˈkacːis] domestic cat #1,591
- Lithuanian katė[kɐ²ˈtʲeː] #1,557
- Macedonian мачка[ˈmat͡ʃka] #1,300
- Malay kucing/ˈkut͡ʃiŋ/ #814
- Malayalam പൂച്ച/puːt͡ʃt͡ʃɐ/ cat, Felis catus, small, domesticated… #839
- Norwegian katt/katː/ a cat #2,198
- Persian گربه[ɡ̥oɹ.bé] #712
- Portuguese gato/ˈɡa.tu/ #1,523
- Romanian pisica/piˈsika/ #1,850
- Serbian mačka/mât͡ʃka/ #1,846
- Slovak mačka/mat͡ʃka/ #1,139
- Slovenian mačka/máːt͡ʃka/ #657
- Spanish gato/ˈɡato/ #1,486
- Tagalog pusa/ˈpusaʔ/ cat; feline #468
- Tamil பில்லி/pɪlliː/ #363
- Telugu పిల్లులు/ˈpillulu/ #668
- Turkish kedi/ceˈdi/ #1,165
- Vietnamese mèo[mɛw˨˩] #1,143
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 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.