How to say “kiss” in 45 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.
- beso/ˈbeso/ Spanish
- поцелуй[pət͡sɨˈɫuj] Russian
- قبلة/qubla/ Arabic
- 接吻/t͡ɕi̯ɛ⁵⁵ wən²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ Chinese
- चुंबन/t͡ʃʊm.bən/ Hindi
- φιλί/fiˈli/ Greek
“kiss” in Spanish: beso · French: baiser · German: kuss · Italian: bacio · Portuguese: beijo · Chinese: 接吻 · Russian: поцелуй · Arabic: قبلة
It is commonest in Afrikaans, where soen is the 479th most used word.
Kiss in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans soen/sun/ #479
- Albanian puthje[ˈpuθjɛ] #1,198
- Arabic قبلة/qubla/ #1,150
- Armenian համբույր/hɑmˈpʰujɾ/ #706
- Basque musu/ˈmus̺u/ #480
- Bosnian poljubac/ˈpoʎʊbɐts/ a kiss #1,574
- Bulgarian целувка[t͡sɛˈɫufkɐ] #1,573
- Catalan petó[pəˈto] #1,541
- Chinese 接吻/t͡ɕi̯ɛ⁵⁵ wən²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ to kiss #1,313
- Croatian poljubac/ˈpoʎʊbɐts/ a kiss #1,824
- Danish kys/køs/ to kiss #1,158
- Dutch kussen/ˈkʏsə(n)/ kiss of peace #1,543
- English lips/lɪps/ To kiss, to smooch #2,126
- Esperanto kison/ˈkison/ #1,665
- Estonian musi/ˈmusi/ #1,413
- French baiser/bɛ.ze/ to kiss #1,167
- Georgian კოცნა[kʼo̞t͡sʰnä] #907
- German kuss[kʰʊs] #1,900
- Greek φιλί/fiˈli/ #1,649
- Hebrew נשיקה/neʃiˈka/ #1,404
- Hindi चुंबन/t͡ʃʊm.bən/ the act of kissing; a kiss #1,057
- Icelandic kyssa[ˈcʰɪs(ː)a] to kiss #833
- Indonesian mencium/məɲt͡ʃium/ to kiss #1,152
- Italian bacio/ˈba.t͡ʃo/ #1,575
- Korean 키스[cçis͈ɯ] romantic kiss #883
- Latvian skūpstu/ˈskuːpstu/ #2,261
- Lithuanian pabučiuoti[pɐbʊ¹ˈt͡ʃʲu̟ɔtʲɪ] to give a kiss #1,628
- Macedonian бакнеж[ˈbaknɛʃ] #1,449
- Malay cium/ˈt͡ʃium/ to kiss #1,251
- Malayalam ചുംബനം/t͡ʃumbanam/ #1,135
- Norwegian kyss/çʏsː/ to kiss #1,164
- Persian بوس[buːs] #1,482
- Portuguese beijo/ˈbe(j).ʒu/ #1,721
- Romanian sărut/səˈɾut/ #1,612
- Russian поцелуй[pət͡sɨˈɫuj] #1,842
- Serbian poljubac/ˈpoʎʊbɐts/ a kiss #1,610
- Slovak bozk/bɔsk/ #1,204
- Slovenian poljub/pɔljúːp/ #790
- Spanish beso/ˈbeso/ #1,422
- Swedish kyss/ɕʏs/ to kiss passionately or with great affection,… #1,664
- Tagalog halikan/haliˈkan/ to kiss; to give a kiss to #1,007
- Tamil முத்தம்/mʊt̪ːɐm/ kissing, a kiss #649
- Telugu ముద్దు/mud̪ːu/ #555
- Turkish öpücük/ø.pyˈd͡ʒyk/ #1,935
- Urdu بوسہ/boː.sɑ(ː)/ #1,474
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 Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.