How to say “destroy” in 35 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 Arabic, where محق is the 425th most used word.
- Afrikaans verwoes to destroy; to devastate #826
- Albanian prish to destroy #1,020
- Arabic محق to efface, to blot out, to destroy, to… #425
- Armenian ավերել to ruin, destroy, devastate #1,477
- Basque suntsitu to destroy, to be destroyed #495
- Bosnian uništiti to destroy, annihilate #1,258
- Bulgarian убия to kill, to slay, to destroy, to murder, to… #527
- Catalan destruir to destroy #1,238
- Croatian uništiti to destroy, annihilate #917
- Czech zničit to destroy #1,128
- Danish ødelægge to destroy #837
- Dutch vernietigen to destroy #1,243
- Esperanto detrui to destroy #2,036
- Finnish tuhota to destroy #1,411
- French détruire to destroy #1,280
- Galician tirar to discard; to destroy #1,323
- German zerstört to destroy, demolish, devastate, eliminate #1,223
- Hebrew ביער to destroy, remove #1,379
- Icelandic eyða to destroy, bring to nothing #2,267
- Indonesian menghancurkan to destroy #501
- Italian distrutto to destroy, wipe out or ruin #1,692
- Latvian iznīcināt to destroy #1,138
- Lithuanian sunaikinti to destroy #703
- Macedonian уништи to destroy, annihilate, exterminate,… #584
- Malay musnah to destroy #1,141
- Malayalam തകർക്കുക to destroy #2,428
- Norwegian ødelegge to destroy, lay waste to #790
- Polish zniszczyć to destroy #1,388
- Romanian distruge to destroy #1,135
- Russian уничтожить to destroy, to annihilate, to obliterate, to… #1,599
- Serbian uništiti to destroy, annihilate #1,389
- Spanish destruir to destroy #2,136
- Tagalog sirain to destroy; to ruin #817
- Ukrainian знищити to destroy, to annihilate, to obliterate #1,243
- Vietnamese phá to destroy, to demolish #462
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.