How to say “death” in 48 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.
- muerte/ˈmweɾte/ Spanish
- смерти[ˈsmʲertʲɪ] Russian
- الموت/almawt/ Arabic
- 사망[ˈsʰa̠(ː)ma̠ŋ] Korean
- मौत/mɔːt̪/ Hindi
- θάνατο/ˈθanaˌto/ Greek
“death” in Spanish: muerte · German: tod · Italian: morire · Portuguese: morte · Korean: 사망 · Russian: смерти · Arabic: الموت · Hindi: मौत
It is commonest in Norwegian, where død is the 200th most used word.
Death in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian vdekje/ˈvdɛkjɛ/ #567
- Arabic الموت/almawt/ #215
- Armenian մահ/mɑh/ #319
- Basque heriotza/heɾiot͡s̻a/ #375
- Bengali মৃত্যু/mɾit̪ːu/ #397
- Bosnian smrt/smr̩̂t/ #533
- Bulgarian смъртта[smɐrtˈta] #393
- Chinese 害死/xaɪ̯⁵¹ sɹ̩²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ to harm to death; to harass someone to death #861
- Croatian smrt/smr̩̂t/ #525
- Czech smrti/ˈsmr̩ci/ #540
- Danish ihjel/ijɛl/ to death #281
- Dutch doden/ˈdoːdə(n)/ #429
- English kill/ˈkɪl/ To put to death; to extinguish the life of #239
- Esperanto morto/ˈmorto/ #286
- Estonian surma/ˈsurmɑ/ #366
- Finnish kuolema/ˈkuo̯lemɑ/ death, demise, decease #1,204
- Galician morte/ˈmɔɾte/ #260
- Georgian სიკვდილი[sikʼʷdili] #230
- German tod/toːt/ #464
- Greek θάνατο/ˈθanaˌto/ #709
- Hebrew מוות/mawt/ #666
- Hindi मौत/mɔːt̪/ #416
- Hungarian halál[ˈhɒlaːl] #711
- Icelandic lát[ˈlauːt] #1,532
- Italian morire/moˈri.re/ #525
- Korean 사망[ˈsʰa̠(ː)ma̠ŋ] #931
- Latvian nāves/ˈnaːʋes/ #523
- Lithuanian gyvenimas[ɡʲiː²ˈʋʲæːnʲɪmɐs] the time between birth and death #289
- Macedonian смрт[smr̩t] #409
- Malay mati/mati/ dead, death, deceased #83
- Malayalam മരണം/mɐɾɐɳɐm/ #216
- Norwegian død/døːd/ #200
- Persian مرگ[mǽɹɡʲ̥] #243
- Polish koniec/ˈkɔ.ɲɛt͡s/ end, death #327
- Portuguese morte/ˈmɔʁ.t͡ʃi/ #327
- Romanian moartea/ˈmo̯ar.te̯a/ #596
- Russian смерти[ˈsmʲertʲɪ] #407
- Serbian smrt/smr̩̂t/ #508
- Slovak smrť/smr̩c/ #344
- Slovenian smrt/smə́rt/ #251
- Spanish muerte/ˈmweɾte/ #345
- Swedish dödar/ˈdøːdar/ things dying; death #524
- Tagalog kamatayan/kamaˈtajan/ death; end #338
- Tamil மரணம்/mɐɾɐɳɐm/ death, mortality #349
- Telugu మృతి/ˈmruti/ #1,719
- Turkish ölümcül/ølymˈd͡ʒyl/ causing death; deadly, lethal, fatal, terminal #1,653
- Ukrainian смерть[smɛrtʲ] #404
- Urdu موت/mɔːt̪/ death, demise #289
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), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.