How to say “meaning” in 43 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.
- معنى/maʕ.nan/ Arabic
- 意思/i⁵¹ sɹ̩¹/ Chinese
- 의미[ˈɰi(ː)mi] Korean
- मतलब/mət̪.ləb/ Hindi
- σημασία/simaˈsia/ Greek
- משמעות/maʃmaˈʔut/ Hebrew
“meaning” in German: bedeutung · Chinese: 意思 · Korean: 의미 · Arabic: معنى · Hindi: मतलब · Greek: σημασία
It is commonest in Chinese, where 意思 is the 45th most used word.
Meaning in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans sin/sən/ meaning, sense #621
- Albanian nuk/nuk/ Negates the meaning of the modified verb:… #5
- Arabic معنى/maʕ.nan/ meaning, import, sense #533
- Armenian կուչ/kut͡ʃʰ/ found only in idioms with the meaning… #1,086
- Basque esanahi/es̺anahi/ #1,146
- Bengali মানে/mane/ #114
- Bosnian smisao/smîːsao/ sense, meaning #1,883
- Bulgarian значение[znɐˈt͡ʃɛniɛ] significance, meaning, sense #318
- Chinese 意思/i⁵¹ sɹ̩¹/ meaning; significance #45
- Croatian smisao/smîːsao/ sense, meaning #1,794
- Czech smysl[ˈsmɪsl̩] sense, meaning #623
- Danish sin/ˈsiːˀn/ third-person sg pronoun, meaning his/her/its #192
- Dutch zin/zɪn/ meaning, significance #589
- English not/nɑt/ Negates the meaning of the modified verb #28
- Esperanto sencon/ˈsent͡son/ sense, meaning #2,465
- Finnish merkitystä/ˈmerkɪˌtystæ/ meaning, contents #1,883
- French soit/swa/ or, meaning, that is to say #187
- Galician significado/siŋnifiˈkado/ #2,378
- Georgian მნიშვნელობა[mniʃʷne̞ɫo̞bä] #643
- German bedeutung/bəˈdɔʏ̯tʊŋ/ meaning, sense #2,404
- Greek σημασία/simaˈsia/ meaning, sense #494
- Hebrew משמעות/maʃmaˈʔut/ #977
- Hindi मतलब/mət̪.ləb/ #154
- Hungarian jelentést[ˈjɛlɛnteːʃt] #2,087
- Icelandic þeim/θeiːm/ them, dative plural form of hann meaning "he" #377
- Korean 의미[ˈɰi(ː)mi] #1,091
- Latvian ļoti[ʎùoti] used to intensify the meaning of the word it… #63
- Lithuanian prasmė[prɐ²ˈsʲmʲeː] sense, meaning #1,749
- Macedonian смисла[ˈsmisɫa] sense, meaning, logic, purpose #604
- Malay bererti[bə.rə(r).ti] having meaning; meaningful #1,307
- Malayalam അർത്ഥം/art̪t̪ʰam/ #826
- Persian معنی[mæʔ.nɒ́ː] with the meaning of: means, meaning #1,292
- Polish niech/ˈɲɛx/ expresses optative meaning; had better, may #169
- Romanian sens/ˈsens/ sense, meaning #901
- Russian смысле[ˈsmɨs⁽ʲ⁾lʲe] sense, meaning #518
- Serbian smisao/smîːsao/ sense, meaning #1,840
- Slovenian smisel/smíːsəʋ/ #577
- Tagalog kahulugan/kahuluˈɡan/ meaning; sense #839
- Tamil வேண்டாம்/ʋeːɳɖɑːm/ A modal verb meaning 'will not be needed or… #50
- Turkish acaba/ˈɑ.d͡ʒɑ.bɑː/ Used to add a meaning of curiosity,… #451
- Ukrainian завгодно[zɐu̯ˈɦɔdnɔ] with pronoun or adverb, meaning "any" #1,035
- Urdu معنی/məniː/ #1,360
- Vietnamese không[xəwŋ͡m˧˧] Negates the meaning of the modified verb or… #2
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), 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.