How to say “knife” in 45 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 Bengali, where দাও is the 57th most used word.
- Afrikaans mes #1,073
- Albanian thikë knife, dagger #1,138
- Arabic سكين #1,872
- Armenian դանակ #1,596
- Basque labana #711
- Bengali দাও a kind of big knife #57
- Bosnian nož #1,198
- Bulgarian нож #1,336
- Catalan ganivet #1,182
- Chinese 刀子 small knife; pocketknife #1,930
- Croatian nož #1,119
- Czech nůž #1,493
- Danish kniv #1,569
- Dutch mes knife, cleaver #1,150
- Estonian nuga #1,120
- French couteau #1,375
- Galician coitelo #1,625
- German messer #1,393
- Greek μαχαίρι #1,139
- Hebrew סכין knife, blade #1,214
- Icelandic hnífur #2,169
- Indonesian pisau #971
- Italian coltello #1,616
- Korean 칼 knife, sword #418
- Latvian nazi #1,722
- Lithuanian peilis #1,679
- Macedonian нож #1,000
- Malay pisau #856
- Malayalam കത്തി #361
- Norwegian kniven #1,848
- Persian چاقو #840
- Polish nóż knife, usually sharpened on one edge,… #1,858
- Portuguese faca #1,452
- Russian нож #1,739
- Serbian nož #1,142
- Slovak nôž #780
- Slovenian nož #507
- Spanish cuchillo #1,581
- Swedish kniv a knife #1,903
- Tagalog kutsilyo #922
- Tamil கத்தி knife, lancet, razor #208
- Telugu కత్తి #276
- Turkish bıçak #1,481
- Urdu چھری #1,054
- Vietnamese dao #1,042
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.