How to say “kill” in 49 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 Persian, where کار is the 31st most used word.
- Afrikaans doodmaak to kill #411
- Albanian vrarë to kill #272
- Arabic قتل to kill, to slay, to murder #166
- Armenian սպանել to kill; to murder; to assassinate #155
- Basque ero to kill #588
- Bengali মারা to kill #139
- Bosnian ubiti to kill, murder #364
- Bulgarian убия to kill, to slay, to destroy, to murder, to… #527
- Catalan matar to kill #220
- Chinese 打死 to kill by beating; to beat to death #629
- Croatian ubiti to kill, murder #302
- Czech zabít to kill #402
- Danish dræbe to kill #314
- Dutch moord to murder, to kill #496
- English murdered To illegally kill with intent, especially… #1,430
- Esperanto mortigi to kill #388
- Estonian tappa to kill #350
- Finnish tappaa to kill, slay #271
- French tuer to kill #256
- Galician matar to kill #345
- Georgian მოკვლა to kill #1,237
- German töten to kill #384
- Greek σκοτώσει to kill, murder, slay #503
- Hebrew הרג to kill #633
- Hungarian ölni to kill, slay, murder #770
- Icelandic bana to kill #1,493
- Indonesian bunuh to kill #363
- Italian ucciso to kill #341
- Latvian nogalināt to kill #363
- Lithuanian žudyti to murder, to kill #892
- Macedonian убие to kill, murder #324
- Malay bunuh to kill #177
- Malayalam കൊല്ല് to kill #627
- Norwegian drepe To kill, to murder #227
- Persian کار to kill, to murder #31
- Polish zabić to kill #351
- Portuguese morto to kill #322
- Romanian omori to kill #1,023
- Russian убить to kill #379
- Serbian ubiti to kill, murder #454
- Slovak zabiť to kill, to murder, to slay #244
- Slovenian ubiti to kill #247
- Spanish matar to kill, slay #535
- Swedish dödade to kill #349
- Tagalog patayin to kill #180
- Tamil வீட்டு to kill #489
- Turkish öldürmek to kill, to murder #661
- Ukrainian убити to kill, to murder #1,550
- Vietnamese giết to kill #145
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.