How to say “dance” in 52 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.
- baile/ˈbaile/ Spanish
- танцевать[tənt͡sɐˈvatʲ] Russian
- رقصة/raq.sˤa/ Arabic
- 跳舞/tʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹ u²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ Chinese
- 춤[t͡ɕʰum] Korean
- नृत्य/nɾɪt̪.jə/ Hindi
“dance” in Spanish: baile · French: danse · German: tanzen · Italian: ballo · Portuguese: dançar · Chinese: 跳舞 · Korean: 춤 · Russian: танцевать
It is commonest in Chinese, where 跳舞 is the 291st most used word.
Dance in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans dans/ˈdɑ̃ns/ #346
- Albanian kërcej/kəɾt͡sɛj/ to dance #1,704
- Arabic رقصة/raq.sˤa/ a dance #1,824
- Armenian պար/pɑɾ/ #693
- Basque dantza/dant͡s̻a/ dance, dancing #469
- Bengali নৃত্য/nɾit̪ːo/ #2,164
- Bosnian ples/plêːs/ #1,146
- Bulgarian танц[tant͡s] #2,076
- Catalan ballar[bəˈʎa] to dance #1,454
- Chinese 跳舞/tʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹ u²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ to dance #291
- Croatian ples/plêːs/ #1,098
- Czech tanec[ˈtanɛt͡s] #2,021
- Danish danse/ˈdansə/ a dance #993
- Dutch dansen/ˈdɑnsə(n)/ #966
- English shows/ʃoʊz/ A play, dance, or other entertainment #1,407
- Esperanto danci/ˈdant͡si/ to dance #1,930
- Estonian tantsima/ˈtɑntsimɑ/ to dance #1,593
- Finnish tanssia/ˈtɑnsːiɑˣ/ to dance #2,038
- French danse/dɑ̃s/ to dance #1,123
- Galician bailar/bajˈlaɾ/ to dance #1,002
- Georgian ცეკვა[t͡sʰe̞kʼʷä] #621
- German tanzen/ˈtan(t)sən/ to dance #1,013
- Greek χορό/xoˈɾo/ #1,116
- Hebrew ריקוד/ʁiˈkud/ #1,462
- Hindi नृत्य/nɾɪt̪.jə/ dance; dancing #1,107
- Hungarian táncolni[ˈtaːnt͡solni] to dance #1,906
- Icelandic dansa[ˈtansa] to dance #505
- Indonesian dansa/dan.sa/ Western-style partner dance #1,797
- Italian ballo/ˈbal.lo/ to dance #1,098
- Korean 춤[t͡ɕʰum] #840
- Latvian dejot[dɛjuôt] to dance #1,715
- Lithuanian šokis/ˈʃoːkɪs/ #1,847
- Macedonian танц[tant͡s] dance, dancing #1,612
- Malay menari/mənari/ To dance #615
- Malayalam നൃത്തം/nrit̪t̪ɐm/ #414
- Norwegian danse/ˈdɑnsə/ to dance #1,044
- Persian رقص[ɹæʁs] #624
- Portuguese dançar/dɐ̃ˈsa(ʁ)/ to dance #1,097
- Romanian dans/ˈdans/ #1,225
- Russian танцевать[tənt͡sɐˈvatʲ] to dance #2,078
- Serbian ples/plêːs/ #1,145
- Slovak tanec/ˈta.ɲet͡s/ #934
- Slovenian ples/pléːs/ #449
- Spanish baile/ˈbaile/ to dance #1,026
- Swedish ska/ˈskɑː/ ska; a style of dance music #30
- Tagalog sayaw/saˈjaw/ #2,196
- Tamil நடனம்/nɐɖɐnɐm/ #760
- Telugu నటన/ˈnaʈana/ a dance, dancing #685
- Turkish dans/dɑns/ #482
- Ukrainian танцювати[tɐnʲt͡sʲʊˈʋate] to dance #2,168
- Urdu رقص/ɾəqs/ dance, dancing #710
- Vietnamese múa[muə˧˦] to dance religiously or artistically by… #1,924
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.