How to say “happiness” 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 Malayalam, where സന്തോഷം is the 136th most used word.
- Arabic سعادة happiness, gladness #1,753
- Bengali সুখ happiness, bliss, felicity #998
- Bosnian sreća #1,284
- Bulgarian щастие #1,105
- Catalan felicitats #1,610
- Croatian sreća #1,216
- Czech štěstí #385
- Danish lykke #627
- English alright An expression of happiness #557
- Esperanto feliĉon #1,337
- Estonian rõõm joy, happiness #786
- Finnish ilo joy, happiness, delight, merriment, mirth #1,785
- Galician felicidade #1,047
- Georgian ბედნიერება #970
- German glück happiness, joy, bliss #376
- Greek ευτυχία happiness, contentment #1,855
- Hebrew שמחה joy, happiness, glee #532
- Hindi आनंद bliss, pleasure, happiness, joy #809
- Icelandic hamingju #352
- Indonesian kebahagiaan happiness; felicity #1,603
- Korean 행복 #2,172
- Latvian laimes #1,167
- Lithuanian laimė #1,388
- Macedonian среќа #273
- Malayalam സന്തോഷം #136
- Norwegian lykke #616
- Polish szczęście #605
- Portuguese felicidade #2,224
- Romanian fericire happiness, joy, felicity #1,365
- Russian счастье happiness, good luck #2,125
- Serbian sreća #1,099
- Slovak šťastie #371
- Slovenian i used to denote happiness after correct… #368
- Spanish felicidad #1,795
- Swedish lycka joy, happiness #666
- Tagalog kasiyahan happiness; contentment; satisfaction #1,173
- Tamil மகிழ்ச்சி happiness, joy #213
- Turkish mutluluk happiness, joy #1,628
- Ukrainian щастя #935
- Urdu خوشی happiness; pleasure; delight; joy #325
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.