How to say “death” in 48 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.
- Albanian vdekje #567
- Arabic الموت #215
- Armenian մահ #319
- Basque heriotza #375
- Bengali মৃত্যু #397
- Bosnian smrt #533
- Bulgarian смъртта #393
- Chinese 害死 to harm to death; to harass someone to death #861
- Croatian smrt #525
- Czech smrti #540
- Danish ihjel to death #281
- Dutch doden #429
- English kill To put to death; to extinguish the life of #239
- Esperanto morto #286
- Estonian surma #366
- Finnish kuolema death, demise, decease #1,204
- Galician morte #260
- Georgian სიკვდილი #230
- German tod #464
- Greek θάνατο #709
- Hebrew מוות #666
- Hindi मौत #416
- Hungarian halál #711
- Icelandic lát #1,532
- Italian morire #525
- Korean 사망 #931
- Latvian nāves #523
- Lithuanian gyvenimas the time between birth and death #289
- Macedonian смрт #409
- Malay mati dead, death, deceased #83
- Malayalam മരണം #216
- Norwegian død #200
- Persian مرگ #243
- Polish koniec end, death #327
- Portuguese morte #327
- Romanian moartea #596
- Russian смерти #407
- Serbian smrt #508
- Slovak smrť #344
- Slovenian smrt #251
- Spanish muerte #345
- Swedish dödar things dying; death #524
- Tagalog kamatayan death; end #338
- Tamil மரணம் death, mortality #349
- Telugu మృతి #1,719
- Turkish ölümcül causing death; deadly, lethal, fatal, terminal #1,653
- Ukrainian смерть #404
- Urdu موت death, demise #289
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.