How to say “dark” in 42 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.
- 黑暗/xeɪ̯⁵⁵ ˀän⁵¹/ Chinese
- 어둠[ʌ̹dum] Korean
- חשוך/χaˈʃuχ/ Hebrew
- խավար/χɑˈvɑɾ/ Armenian
- ഇരുണ്ട/iɾuɳʈä/ Malayalam
- تاریک[t̪ʰɒ́ː.ɹiːkʰʲ] Persian
“dark” in French: sombre · German: dunkel · Italian: buio · Portuguese: escuro · Chinese: 黑暗 · Korean: 어둠
It is commonest in Vietnamese, where tối is the 254th most used word.
Dark in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans donker/ˈdɔŋ.kər/ #518
- Albanian errët/ɛrət/ #1,031
- Arabic حالك/ħaːlik/ very dark or black, pitch-black, deep black,… #243
- Armenian խավար/χɑˈvɑɾ/ dark, darkness #611
- Basque ilun/ilun/ #717
- Bengali শ্যাম/ʃæm/ black, having a dark or swarthy complexion #1,876
- Bosnian mraku/ˈmrakʊ/ dark, darkness #2,051
- Catalan fosc[ˈfosk] #1,276
- Chinese 黑暗/xeɪ̯⁵⁵ ˀän⁵¹/ dark; unlighted #392
- Croatian mraku/ˈmrakʊ/ dark, darkness #2,117
- Danish mørkt/ˈmœɐ̯ɡd/ #1,675
- Dutch donker/ˈdɔŋ.kər/ #1,179
- English darkness/ˈdɑɹk.nɪs/ The state of being dark; lack of light; the… #2,371
- Estonian pime/ˈpime/ #1,032
- French sombre/sɔ̃bʁ/ #2,197
- Galician noite/ˈnojte/ night; period of dark, when the sun is below… #113
- German dunkel/ˈdʊŋkəl/ #1,979
- Greek σκοτάδι/skoˈta.ði/ darkness, dark #1,352
- Hebrew חשוך/χaˈʃuχ/ dark, obscure #1,965
- Hungarian sötét[ˈʃøteːt] dark, sombre, somber #976
- Icelandic myrkur[ˈmɪr̥kʏr] #1,680
- Indonesian gelap/ɡəˈlap/ #740
- Italian buio/ˈbu.jo/ #1,664
- Korean 어둠[ʌ̹dum] dark; darkness #1,112
- Latvian tumšs[tùmʃ] #2,064
- Lithuanian tamsa[tamˈsɐ] dark, darkness #1,763
- Malay gelap/ɡəˈlap/ #701
- Malayalam ഇരുണ്ട/iɾuɳʈä/ #653
- Norwegian mørkt/ˈmœrkt/ #1,607
- Persian تاریک[t̪ʰɒ́ː.ɹiːkʰʲ] dark; dim #2,291
- Portuguese escuro/isˈku.ɾu/ #1,683
- Romanian întuneric/ɨn.tuˈne.rik/ darkness, dark #1,360
- Serbian mraku/ˈmrakʊ/ dark, darkness #2,053
- Slovak temný/cemniː/ #2,210
- Slovenian tema/təmá/ dark, darkness #710
- Spanish noche/ˈnot͡ʃe/ after dark, at night, nocturnally #136
- Swedish mörkt/ˈmœrkt/ #1,777
- Tagalog madilim/madiˈlim/ dark; obscure #747
- Tamil கருப்பு/kɐɾʊpːɯ/ black, dark #598
- Turkish kara/kaˈɾa/ black, dark #737
- Urdu کلو/kəl.luː/ black, dark, someone of dark skin #1,470
- Vietnamese tối[toj˧˦] #254
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.