How to say “kill” in 49 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.
- matar/maˈtaɾ/ Spanish
- убить[ʊˈbʲitʲ] Russian
- قتل/qa.ta.la/ Arabic
- σκοτώσει/skoˈtosi/ Greek
- הרג/haˈʁaɡ/ Hebrew
- მოკვლა[mo̞kʼʷɫä] Georgian
“kill” in Spanish: matar · French: tuer · German: töten · Italian: ucciso · Portuguese: morto · Russian: убить · Arabic: قتل · Turkish: öldürmek
It is commonest in Persian, where کار is the 31st most used word.
Kill in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans doodmaak/ˈdʊətmɑːk/ to kill #411
- Albanian vrarë/vɾaɾə/ to kill #272
- Arabic قتل/qa.ta.la/ to kill, to slay, to murder #166
- Armenian սպանել/spɑˈnel/ to kill; to murder; to assassinate #155
- Basque ero/eɾo/ to kill #588
- Bengali মারা/maɾa/ to kill #139
- Bosnian ubiti/ǔbiti/ to kill, murder #364
- Bulgarian убия[oˈbijɐ] to kill, to slay, to destroy, to murder, to… #527
- Catalan matar[məˈta] to kill #220
- Chinese 打死/tä²¹⁴⁻³⁵ sɹ̩²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ to kill by beating; to beat to death #629
- Croatian ubiti/ǔbiti/ to kill, murder #302
- Czech zabít[ˈzabiːt] to kill #402
- Danish dræbe[ˈd̥ʁɛːb̥ə] to kill #314
- Dutch moord/moːrt/ to murder, to kill #496
- English murdered/ˈmɝ.dɚd/ To illegally kill with intent, especially… #1,430
- Esperanto mortigi/morˈtiɡi/ to kill #388
- Estonian tappa/ˈtɑpːɑ/ to kill #350
- Finnish tappaa/ˈtɑpːɑːˣ/ to kill, slay #271
- French tuer/tɥe/ to kill #256
- Galician matar/maˈtaɾ/ to kill #345
- Georgian მოკვლა[mo̞kʼʷɫä] to kill #1,237
- German töten/ˈtøːtən/ to kill #384
- Greek σκοτώσει/skoˈtosi/ to kill, murder, slay #503
- Hebrew הרג/haˈʁaɡ/ to kill #633
- Hungarian ölni[ˈølni] to kill, slay, murder #770
- Icelandic bana[ˈpaːna] to kill #1,493
- Indonesian bunuh/ˈbunuh/ to kill #363
- Italian ucciso/utˈt͡ʃi.zo/ to kill #341
- Latvian nogalināt/ˈnuoɡalinaːt/ to kill #363
- Lithuanian žudyti[ʒʊ¹ˈdʲiːtʲɪ] to murder, to kill #892
- Macedonian убие[ˈubi(j)ɛ] to kill, murder #324
- Malay bunuh/bunuh/ to kill #177
- Malayalam കൊല്ല്/kollɨ/ to kill #627
- Norwegian drepe/ˈdreːpə/ To kill, to murder #227
- Persian کار[kʰɒːɹ] to kill, to murder #31
- Polish zabić/ˈza.bit͡ɕ/ to kill #351
- Portuguese morto/ˈmoʁ.tu/ to kill #322
- Romanian omori[oˈmorʲ] to kill #1,023
- Russian убить[ʊˈbʲitʲ] to kill #379
- Serbian ubiti/ǔbiti/ to kill, murder #454
- Slovak zabiť/zabic/ to kill, to murder, to slay #244
- Slovenian ubiti/ubìːti/ to kill #247
- Spanish matar/maˈtaɾ/ to kill, slay #535
- Swedish dödade/ˈdøːdadɛ/ to kill #349
- Tagalog patayin/pataˈjin/ to kill #180
- Tamil வீட்டு/ʋiːʈːɯ/ to kill #489
- Turkish öldürmek/øl.dyɾˈmec/ to kill, to murder #661
- Ukrainian убити[ʊˈbɪte] to kill, to murder #1,550
- Vietnamese giết[ziət̚˧˦] to kill #145
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.