How to say “dead” in 45 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 Malay, where mati is the 83rd most used word.
- Afrikaans dood #106
- Arabic ميت #360
- Armenian մեռած #194
- Bengali মৃত dead, deceased #366
- Bosnian mrtav dead, deceased #357
- Bulgarian мъртъв dead, lifeless, inanimate #368
- Catalan morts #522
- Chinese 死者 the dead; the deceased; the departed #786
- Croatian mrtav dead, deceased #358
- Czech mrtvý #546
- Danish døde dead, inanimate #234
- Dutch lijken the dead but otherwise intact body,… #771
- English alive Having life; living; not dead #542
- Estonian surnud #216
- Finnish kuolleet dead person, decedent, deceased #1,793
- French morte #569
- Galician mortos dead; deceased #543
- Georgian მკვდარი #431
- German tot dead, deceased #271
- Greek νεκρός #490
- Hindi मृत dead, deceased #586
- Hungarian halott dead, deceased #359
- Icelandic dauður #1,884
- Indonesian mayat dead body; corpse; cadaver #787
- Italian morto #308
- Latvian līķi dead body, corpse #1,328
- Macedonian мртов #229
- Malay mati dead, death, deceased #83
- Malayalam ശവശരീരം corpse, dead body #1,754
- Norwegian døde dead, deceased #233
- Persian مردگان a dead person #2,418
- Polish martwy #1,212
- Portuguese morta #794
- Romanian mort #371
- Russian мертва #1,780
- Serbian mrtav dead, deceased #364
- Slovak mŕtvy #261
- Slovenian mrtev #203
- Spanish muerta #886
- Swedish döda #169
- Tagalog patay cadaver; corpse; dead body of a person #165
- Turkish ölüm the dead person #510
- Ukrainian мертвий #733
- Urdu مردہ dead, deceased #376
- Vietnamese tịch to drop dead; to croak #1,538
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.