How to say “eye” in 53 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 Chinese, where 眼睛 is the 151st most used word.
- Afrikaans oë #229
- Albanian sytë #309
- Arabic عين #1,210
- Armenian աչք #493
- Basque begi #485
- Bengali চোখ #261
- Bosnian oči #507
- Bulgarian око #1,224
- Catalan ulls #334
- Chinese 眼睛 eye; eyes #151
- Croatian oči #463
- Czech ok #299
- Danish øjeblik blink of an eye, moment #272
- Dutch ogen #403
- English ugly Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically… #1,649
- Esperanto okuloj #371
- Estonian silmad #549
- Finnish silmät #1,282
- French yeux eye, organ that is sensitive to light,… #359
- Galician ollos #243
- Georgian თვალები #430
- German augen #400
- Greek μάτια #359
- Hebrew עין #773
- Hindi आँखें #696
- Hungarian szemmel #2,067
- Icelandic augnablik blink of an eye, moment, second, jiffy #409
- Indonesian mengawasi to keep an eye on, to keep watch over, to… #1,162
- Italian occhi #421
- Korean 눈 #332
- Latvian acis #408
- Lithuanian akis #320
- Macedonian очи #390
- Malay mata #248
- Malayalam കണ്ണ് #269
- Norwegian øyeblikk moment, blink of an eye #399
- Persian چشم #311
- Polish ok #164
- Portuguese olhos #361
- Romanian ochii #419
- Russian глаза #485
- Serbian oči #457
- Slovak oči #332
- Slovenian oči #179
- Spanish ojos #369
- Swedish sånt eye dialect spelling of sådan #353
- Tagalog mata #437
- Tamil கண் #484
- Telugu కన్ను #531
- Turkish göz #399
- Ukrainian око #1,525
- Urdu آنکھ #576
- Vietnamese mắt #384
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.