How to say “hair” in 42 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.
- pelo/ˈpelo/ Spanish
- волосы[ˈvoɫəsɨ] Russian
- 털[tʰʌ̹ɭ] Korean
- बाल/bɑːl/ Hindi
- μαλλιά/maˈʎa/ Greek
- שיער/seˈʔaʁ/ Hebrew
“hair” in Spanish: pelo · German: haare · Portuguese: cabelo · Korean: 털 · Russian: волосы · Hindi: बाल · Turkish: saç · Greek: μαλλιά
It is commonest in Georgian, where თმა is the 1st most used word.
Hair in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian flokët/flɔkət/ #728
- Basque ile/ile/ #558
- Bengali চুল/t͡ʃul/ #528
- Bosnian kosu/ˈkosʊ/ #1,056
- Bulgarian коса[koˈsa] #1,219
- Catalan cabells/kəˈβɛʎs/ #1,268
- Croatian kosu/ˈkosʊ/ #1,123
- Czech vlasy[ˈvlasɪ] #803
- Danish hår/hɔːˀr/ #713
- Esperanto harojn/ˈharoi̯n/ #1,141
- Estonian juuksed/ˈjuːksed̥/ #962
- Galician pelo/ˈpelo/ #728
- Georgian თმა[tʰmä] #1
- German haare/ˈhaːʁə/ #1,239
- Greek μαλλιά/maˈʎa/ #741
- Hebrew שיער/seˈʔaʁ/ #855
- Hindi बाल/bɑːl/ #985
- Indonesian rambut/ˈrambut/ #837
- Italian capelli/kaˈpel.li/ a single hair #741
- Korean 털[tʰʌ̹ɭ] #1,558
- Latvian mati/ˈmati/ #1,181
- Lithuanian plaukai[plɒʊ²ˈkɐɪˑ] #868
- Macedonian коса[ˈkɔsa] #798
- Malay rambut[rambot #607
- Malayalam മുടി/muɖi/ head hair #366
- Norwegian håret/ˈhoːrət/ #982
- Persian مو[mo] #699
- Polish włosy/ˈvwɔ.sɘ/ #1,030
- Portuguese cabelo/kaˈbe.lu/ hair, head of hair #702
- Romanian părul/ˈpərul/ #1,053
- Russian волосы[ˈvoɫəsɨ] #1,103
- Serbian kosu/ˈkosʊ/ #1,061
- Slovenian las/láːs/ hair on top of head #567
- Spanish pelo/ˈpelo/ #775
- Swedish hår/hoːr/ #920
- Tagalog buhok/buˈhok/ #1,115
- Tamil தலைமுடி/t̪ɐlɐɪ̯mʊɖiː/ hair on head #1,944
- Telugu జుట్టు/ˈɟuʈʈu/ #192
- Turkish saç/sat͡ʃ/ #1,316
- Ukrainian волосся[wɔˈɫɔsʲːɐ] #963
- Urdu بال/bɑːl/ #589
- Vietnamese lông[ləwŋ͡m˧˧] body hair #1,372
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), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), 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.