How to say “mean” in 34 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 Icelandic, where ætla is the 100th most used word.
- Albanian poshtër mean; lower #1,597
- Arabic عنى to mean, to signify #1,139
- Basque gaizto evil, mean #816
- Bulgarian среда middle, mean #2,040
- Catalan significa to mean, to signify #684
- Chinese 平均 average; mean #2,390
- Croatian značiti to mean #1,836
- Czech znamená to mean #307
- Danish betyder to mean #250
- Dutch betekent to mean, to signify #385
- Esperanto signifas to signify, mean #312
- Finnish tarkoittaa to mean, intend #379
- French signifie to signify, mean #961
- Galician significa to mean, signify #441
- Georgian ნიშნავს to mean #330
- German bedeutet to imply, to mean, to signify, to indicate,… #493
- Greek σημαίνει to mean, signify #253
- Hebrew התכוון to mean, intend #1,664
- Hungarian jelenti to mean, denote, indicate #443
- Icelandic ætla to intend, to plan, to mean to, be going to #100
- Indonesian berarti to mean; to signify, or indicate #307
- Italian significa to mean, to signify #426
- Korean 평균 average; mean #2,306
- Lithuanian reikšti to mean, signify, convey indicate, express #1,309
- Malay min #1,272
- Norwegian mener to mean #153
- Persian خوار mean, abject #2,445
- Polish zamierzam to intend, to mean, to plan #941
- Portuguese significa to mean #386
- Romanian mijlocul middle, center, mean #1,077
- Slovak znamená to mean #194
- Swedish menar to mean; to convey, or to want to convey #156
- Tagalog este I mean #2,128
- Urdu حقیر mean, low, insignificant #2,194
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.