How to say “empty” in 41 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.
- vacío/baˈθio/ Spanish
- فارغ/faː.riɣ/ Arabic
- άδειο/ˈaðço/ Greek
- ריק/ʁek/ Hebrew
- ফাঁকা/pʰã.ka/ Bengali
- வெற்று/ʋɛrːɯ/ Tamil
“empty” in Spanish: vacío · French: vide · German: leer · Italian: vuoto · Portuguese: vazio · Arabic: فارغ · Greek: άδειο
It is commonest in Galician, where vas is the 188th most used word.
Empty in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans leër/liə̯r/ #569
- Albanian bosh/bɔʃ/ #1,140
- Arabic فارغ/faː.riɣ/ #1,257
- Armenian փուչ/pʰut͡ʃʰ/ hollow; empty; void #534
- Basque hustu/us̺tu/ to empty out, unload #835
- Bengali ফাঁকা/pʰã.ka/ #1,095
- Bosnian prazan/prǎːzan/ empty, vacant #2,212
- Bulgarian празен[ˈprazɛn] empty, vacant #2,458
- Chinese 大便/tä⁵¹⁻⁵³ pi̯ɛn⁵¹/ to defecate; to empty one's bowels #1,883
- Croatian prazna/ˈpraznɐ/ empty, vacant #2,257
- Danish tom[ˈtˢʌmˀ] #570
- Dutch leger/ˈleː.ɣər/ empty, hollow #727
- Esperanto malplena/malˈplena/ #1,322
- Estonian tühi/ˈtyhi/ #801
- Finnish tyhjä/ˈtyhjæ/ empty, void #1,682
- French vide/vid/ #1,182
- Galician vas/bas/ empty, devoid of content, containing only air #188
- German leer/leːɐ̯/ #1,590
- Greek άδειο/ˈaðço/ #1,915
- Hebrew ריק/ʁek/ #808
- Hungarian üres[ˈyrɛʃ] #1,101
- Italian vuoto/ˈvwɔ.to/ empty, vacant #1,886
- Korean 빈[pin] to be empty #741
- Latvian tukša/ˈtukʃa/ #1,979
- Lithuanian tuščias[ˈt̪ʊʃʲt͡ʃʲɛs̪] empty, vacant #1,280
- Macedonian празен[ˈprazɛn] empty, void #2,104
- Malay sunyi/ˈsuɲi/ deserted, empty #1,820
- Malayalam ഒഴിഞ്ഞ/oɻiɲːä/ #1,185
- Norwegian tom/ˈtɔm/ #479
- Persian خالی[xɒː.líː] empty, devoid #1,244
- Portuguese vazio/vaˈzi.u/ devoid of content; empty #1,979
- Romanian gol/ˈɡol/ #1,176
- Serbian prazan/prǎːzan/ empty, vacant #2,147
- Slovak prázdny/praːzdni/ #1,337
- Slovenian prazen/pràːzən/ #869
- Spanish vacío/baˈθio/ empty, vacant #2,157
- Swedish tom/tuːm/ #654
- Tamil வெற்று/ʋɛrːɯ/ empty, plain, blank, void, bare, dummy #853
- Telugu ఖాళీ/kʰaːɭiː/ empty, vacant #456
- Urdu خالی/xɑː.liː/ empty, vacant #707
- Vietnamese trống[t͡ɕəwŋ͡m˧˦] empty; vacant #1,126
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.