How to say “knife” 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.
- cuchillo/kuˈt͡ʃiʝo/ Spanish
- нож[noʂ] Russian
- سكين/sik.kiːn/ Arabic
- 칼[kʰa̠ɭ] Korean
- μαχαίρι/maˈçe.ɾi/ Greek
- סכין/saˈkin/ Hebrew
“knife” in Spanish: cuchillo · French: couteau · German: messer · Italian: coltello · Portuguese: faca · Korean: 칼 · Russian: нож · Arabic: سكين
It is commonest in Tamil, where கத்தி is the 208th most used word.
Knife in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans mes/mɛs/ #1,073
- Albanian thikë/θikə/ knife, dagger #1,138
- Arabic سكين/sik.kiːn/ #1,872
- Armenian դանակ/dɑˈnɑk/ #1,596
- Basque labana/labana/ #711
- Bengali দাও/d̪ao/ a kind of big knife #57
- Bosnian nož/nôːʒ/ #1,198
- Bulgarian нож[nɔʃ] #1,336
- Catalan ganivet[ɡə.niˈβɛt] #1,182
- Chinese 刀子/tɑʊ̯⁵⁵ d͡z̥ɹ̩²/ small knife; pocketknife #1,930
- Croatian nož/nôːʒ/ #1,119
- Czech nůž[ˈnuːʃ] #1,493
- Danish kniv/kniːv/ #1,569
- Dutch mes/mɛs/ knife, cleaver #1,150
- Estonian nuga/ˈnuɡ̊ɑ/ #1,120
- French couteau/ku.to/ #1,375
- Galician coitelo/kojˈtelo/ #1,625
- German messer/ˈmɛsɐ/ #1,393
- Greek μαχαίρι/maˈçe.ɾi/ #1,139
- Hebrew סכין/saˈkin/ knife, blade #1,214
- Icelandic hnífur[ˈn̥iːvʏr] #2,169
- Indonesian pisau[ˈpisau̯] #971
- Italian coltello/kolˈtɛl.lo/ #1,616
- Korean 칼[kʰa̠ɭ] knife, sword #418
- Latvian nazi/ˈnazi/ #1,722
- Lithuanian peilis[²ˈpʲɛɪˑlʲɪs] #1,679
- Macedonian нож[nɔʃ] #1,000
- Malay pisau/pi.sau̯/ #856
- Malayalam കത്തി/kɐt̪t̪i/ #361
- Norwegian kniven/ˈkniːvən/ #1,848
- Persian چاقو[t͡ʃʰɒː.ʁuː] #840
- Polish nóż/ˈnuʂ/ knife, usually sharpened on one edge,… #1,858
- Portuguese faca/ˈfa.kɐ/ #1,452
- Russian нож[noʂ] #1,739
- Serbian nož/nôːʒ/ #1,142
- Slovak nôž/nu̯ɔʃ/ #780
- Slovenian nož/nɔ́ʃ/ #507
- Spanish cuchillo/kuˈt͡ʃiʝo/ #1,581
- Swedish kniv/kniːv/ a knife #1,903
- Tagalog kutsilyo/kuˈt͡ʃiljo/ #922
- Tamil கத்தி/kɐt̪ːiː/ knife, lancet, razor #208
- Telugu కత్తి/kat̪ːi/ #276
- Turkish bıçak/bɯtʃɑk/ #1,481
- Urdu چھری/t͡ʃʰʊɾiː/ #1,054
- Vietnamese dao[zaːw˧˧] #1,042
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.