How to say “criminal” 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 Vietnamese, where án is the 594th most used word.
- Arabic مجرم #1,545
- Basque gaizkile criminal, evildoer, villain #986
- Bengali অপরাধমূলক #2,201
- Bulgarian престъпник #1,771
- Catalan criminal #1,574
- Chinese 罪犯 criminal; offender; culprit #653
- Dutch crimineel criminal, contrary to enforceable legal rules #2,355
- Esperanto mafio A mafia; an organized criminal syndicate #2,463
- Estonian kurjategija #1,550
- French criminel #2,195
- Hebrew פלילי #1,699
- Hindi अपराधी criminal, offender, sinner, guilty, faulty #1,573
- Hungarian bűnös criminal, guilty, culpable #1,807
- Indonesian penjahat #869
- Italian criminale #2,084
- Korean 구나 act of catching a criminal #1,537
- Latvian noziedznieks #1,958
- Lithuanian nusikaltėlis a criminal, an offender #1,437
- Macedonian криминалец #1,891
- Malay penjenayah #938
- Malayalam കുറ്റകൃത്യം criminal act #1,621
- Persian مجرم criminal, offender, felon #1,491
- Portuguese criminoso #2,365
- Russian преступление crime, criminal act, offense #1,926
- Slovak zločinec #1,587
- Slovenian zločinec #1,334
- Spanish criminal #2,038
- Tagalog kriminal criminal; sinful; grave #685
- Tamil குற்றவாளி offender, culprit, criminal #1,038
- Urdu مجرم criminal, offender #714
- Vietnamese án criminal case #594
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.