How to say “knowledge” in 36 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 Tagalog, where alam is the 23rd most used word.
- Albanian dije knowledge, learning #533
- Arabic معرفة #266
- Bengali জ্ঞান #654
- Bosnian poznato to know, have knowledge of #1,421
- Catalan sé to know, to have knowledge #58
- Chinese 所知 what is known; what one knows; knowledge #1,193
- Croatian poznato to know, have knowledge of #1,363
- Czech ponětí acquaintance, knowledge, understanding, clue,… #1,350
- Dutch ken to know, be acquainted with, to have… #290
- English secret A piece of knowledge that is hidden and… #658
- Esperanto scio #2,050
- Estonian teadmine #2,141
- Finnish tietoa #923
- French connaissance #1,802
- Galician coñecemento #2,112
- German lernen to learn, to acquire knowledge #678
- Greek μάθω to learn, acquire knowledge #591
- Hebrew ידע Knowledge: that which is known #514
- Hindi जानकारी information, knowledge, data #671
- Indonesian ilmu #1,324
- Italian conoscenza knowledge, cognition #1,749
- Malay pengetahuan #1,218
- Malayalam വിദ്യ #786
- Norwegian vet to know; have knowledge of #42
- Persian دانش #915
- Portuguese aprender to learn, to acquire knowledge #981
- Serbian poznato to know, have knowledge of #1,397
- Slovak veda a system of knowledge of the laws of… #1,407
- Slovenian znanje #841
- Spanish conocimiento #2,477
- Swedish vet to know; to be certain about, to have… #36
- Tagalog alam knowledge; learning; wisdom #23
- Tamil அறிவு knowledge, wisdom #914
- Telugu విద్య knowledge, science, learning, education #1,205
- Urdu علم knowledge, learning #677
- Vietnamese trí wisdom; knowledge; intelligence #427
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.