How to say “corpse” in 31 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 جثة corpse, cadaver #816
- Armenian մեռել corpse, dead body #546
- Bengali লাশ dead body, corpse #578
- Chinese 屍體 corpse; cadaver; dead body #1,968
- Danish liget body, corpse #1,254
- Estonian laip corpse, dead body #1,380
- French cadavre corpse, cadaver #2,440
- Galician cadáver corpse, cadaver #2,288
- German leiche dead body, corpse, cadaver, carcass #942
- Greek πτώμα cadaver, corpse, dead body #737
- Hebrew גופה #1,232
- Indonesian mayat dead body; corpse; cadaver #787
- Italian cadavere corpse, body, cadaver #1,629
- Korean 시체 cadaver, corpse, body #925
- Latvian līķi dead body, corpse #1,328
- Lithuanian lavonas corpse, cadaver #1,307
- Malay mayat #613
- Malayalam ശവം #553
- Norwegian liket a corpse, body #1,126
- Persian جسد #719
- Romanian cadavrul #1,331
- Russian труп corpse, dead body #2,103
- Slovak mŕtvola #1,796
- Slovenian truplo body, corpse #345
- Spanish cadáver cadaver, corpse #2,013
- Tagalog patay cadaver; corpse; dead body of a person #165
- Turkish ceset #1,147
- Ukrainian труп #1,496
- Urdu لاش #777
- Vietnamese xác #318
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.