How to say “evil” in 40 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 Bengali, where খারাপ is the 136th most used word.
- Afrikaans kwade #2,188
- Albanian keqe bad, evil, wicked, naughty #268
- Arabic سيئ bad, evil #678
- Armenian չարիք evil, harm, something bad #456
- Basque gaizto evil, mean #816
- Bengali খারাপ bad; gone bad; evil #136
- Bosnian zao evil, malicious, bad, mean, wicked #686
- Bulgarian зло evil, malice #1,838
- Croatian zao evil, malicious, bad, mean, wicked #1,452
- Czech zlé #1,407
- Danish ondt #383
- English devil An evil creature, the objectification of a… #1,378
- Estonian kurat a devil, an evil spirit #178
- Finnish paha bad, evil, ill #650
- Georgian ბოროტება evil, malice, spite #1,391
- German schlechte bad, evil, wicked #1,237
- Greek κακό bad, evil, ill, wicked #367
- Hebrew רע An evil, trouble; something bad #248
- Hindi बदमाश evil, wicked #1,133
- Hungarian gonosz evil, evil-minded, malicious, wicked, vile #968
- Icelandic vondur bad, evil #1,370
- Indonesian jahat bad; evil #523
- Korean 악 evil; wickedness #1,370
- Latvian ļaunu evil, wicked #1,620
- Macedonian зло evil, wickedness, malice #1,485
- Malay jahat bad, evil #440
- Malayalam തിന്മ evil; moral badness #2,125
- Norwegian onde bad, evil, wicked, vicious #1,389
- Persian شر evil, wickedness #1,188
- Serbian zao evil, malicious, bad, mean, wicked #1,261
- Slovak zlé #232
- Slovenian zlo #750
- Swedish onda #1,619
- Tagalog masama evil; bad #322
- Tamil தீய evil, wicked, sinful #1,017
- Telugu కీడు evil, harm, misfortune, danger #1,824
- Turkish fena bad, evil #631
- Ukrainian біса evil spirit, demon #440
- Urdu خرابی badness, evil, corruption #1,033
- Vietnamese ác cruel; evil; inhumane; merciless #849
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.