How to say “enemy” in 46 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 적 is the 195th most used word.
- Afrikaans vyand An enemy, a host, a foe #668
- Albanian armik #1,748
- Arabic عدو enemy; foe #2,140
- Armenian թշնամի #592
- Basque etsai enemy, opponent, adversary #951
- Bengali শত্রু enemy, foe #560
- Bosnian neprijatelj #1,493
- Bulgarian враг enemy, foe, fiend, nemesis #1,567
- Catalan enemic #880
- Chinese 敵人 enemy; foe #2,374
- Croatian neprijatelj #1,554
- Czech nepřítel enemy, foe #2,087
- Danish fjender enemy, adversary, foe #1,531
- Dutch vijand #1,129
- Esperanto malamiko enemy, foe #904
- Estonian vaenlane #1,223
- French ennemi #1,316
- Galician inimigo #831
- Georgian მტერი enemy, foe #732
- German feind enemy, fiend, foe #1,470
- Greek εχθρός #1,950
- Hebrew שונא hater, enemy #538
- Hindi दुश्मन enemy, foe #601
- Hungarian ellenség #2,117
- Indonesian musuh enemy, foe #655
- Italian nemico enemy, foe #1,495
- Korean 적 enemy; opponent; adversary #195
- Latvian ienaidnieks enemy, opponent, adversary, foe #1,439
- Lithuanian priešas enemy, foe #1,004
- Macedonian непријатели #1,096
- Malay musuh enemy, foe #508
- Malayalam ശത്രു #585
- Norwegian fienden an enemy #1,476
- Persian دشمن #656
- Portuguese inimigo #1,314
- Serbian neprijatelj #1,564
- Slovak nepriateľ #1,093
- Slovenian sovražnik #693
- Swedish fiender an enemy #1,716
- Tagalog kalaban #484
- Tamil எதிரி enemy, opponent, rival, nemesis #403
- Telugu శత్రువు #331
- Turkish düşman #1,239
- Ukrainian ворог enemy, foe #1,718
- Urdu دشمن enemy, foe #568
- Vietnamese địch an enemy; adversary; opponent; foe #1,107
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.