How to say “devil” in 43 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 Korean, where 마 is the 80th most used word.
- Albanian dreq #154
- Arabic شيطان Satan, shaitan, the Devil #1,687
- Basque deabru the Devil, Satan #660
- Bengali দেও demon, devil #1,539
- Bosnian vrag #1,278
- Bulgarian дявол #1,613
- Catalan dimonis the hell, the devil, on earth; expletive used… #746
- Chinese 魔鬼 devil; demon; fiend; an embodiment of evil #569
- Croatian vrag #936
- Czech čertu #1,121
- Danish fanden the hell, the devil #193
- Dutch duivel #1,605
- Esperanto diablo #660
- Estonian kurat a devil, an evil spirit #178
- Finnish saatana devil, Satan #2,014
- Galician demo devil; demon #955
- Georgian ეშმაკის #1,502
- German teufel the Devil, Satan #453
- Greek διάβολο The Devil, devil #1,609
- Hindi शैतान #1,240
- Hungarian ördög #1,544
- Icelandic fjandinn devil, demon, fiend #130
- Italian diavolo devil, demon, fiend, Satan #373
- Korean 마 jinx; devil, demon; evil spirit / influence #80
- Latvian velns the Devil; Satan #184
- Lithuanian velnias devil; demon #179
- Macedonian ѓавол #1,671
- Malay syaitan Satan, the Devil #1,007
- Malayalam ചെകുത്താൻ devil, satan #1,664
- Norwegian faen the Devil, Satan #138
- Persian شیطان #1,412
- Polish diabła #614
- Portuguese diabo devil; demon; fiend #901
- Romanian naiba devil, deuce #174
- Russian чёрт devil, demon #453
- Serbian đavo #1,527
- Slovak diabol #1,079
- Slovenian hudič #676
- Spanish mala #642
- Swedish katt the devil, Satan #1,905
- Tamil பிசாசு devil, goblin; spirit of malevolent character #901
- Turkish şeytan devil, satan #996
- Ukrainian чорт devil, demon, Satan, evil spirit or force #272
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.