How to say “knee” in 31 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.
- 무릎[muɾɯp̚] Korean
- घुटने/ɡʱʊʈ.neː/ Hindi
- ברך/ˈbeʁeχ/ Hebrew
- জানু/d͡ʒanu/ Bengali
- முழங்கால்/mʊɻɐŋɡɑːl/ Tamil
- മുട്ട്/muʈːɨ̆/ Malayalam
“knee” in French: genoux · German: knie · Korean: 무릎 · Hindi: घुटने · Turkish: diz
It is commonest in Lithuanian, where kelis is the 458th most used word.
Knee in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans knieë/ˈkniːə/ #956
- Albanian gjunjë/ɟuɲə/ #1,472
- Basque belaun/belau̯n/ #2,145
- Bengali জানু/d͡ʒanu/ #994
- Catalan genolls/ʒəˈnoʎs/ #2,347
- Czech kolena[ˈkolɛna] #2,129
- Danish knæ/ˈknɛːˀ/ #1,614
- Dutch knieën/ˈkni.ə(n)/ a knee #2,145
- French genoux/ʒə.nu/ #1,945
- Galician xeonllos/ʃeˈonʎos/ #1,873
- German knie[kniː] #1,890
- Hebrew ברך/ˈbeʁeχ/ #2,203
- Hindi घुटने/ɡʱʊʈ.neː/ #1,990
- Icelandic hné[ˈn̥jɛː] a knee #2,444
- Indonesian berlutut/bərˈlutut/ to knee, to kneel to #1,814
- Korean 무릎[muɾɯp̚] #777
- Lithuanian kelis[²ˈkʲæːlʲɪs] #458
- Macedonian колена[ˈkɔlɛna] #1,481
- Malay lutut/ˈlutut/ #1,579
- Malayalam മുട്ട്/muʈːɨ̆/ #1,252
- Norwegian legger/ˈlɛɡər/ lower leg from the knee to the ankle,… #675
- Persian زانو[zɒː.núː] #1,237
- Romanian genunchi[dʒeˈnunkʲ] #1,786
- Serbian kolena/ˈkolɛnɐ/ #1,997
- Slovak koleno/kɔʎenɔ/ #2,039
- Slovenian koleno/kɔlèːnɔ/ #1,270
- Swedish knä/knɛː/ a knee #1,986
- Tagalog tuhod/ˈtuhod/ #1,807
- Tamil முழங்கால்/mʊɻɐŋɡɑːl/ #1,777
- Telugu మోకాలు/moːkaːlu/ #587
- Turkish diz/diz/ #2,085
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) 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.