How to say “meat” in 40 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.
- 고기[ko̞ɡi] Korean
- मांस/mɑːns/ Hindi
- κρέας/ˈkreas/ Greek
- միս/mis/ Armenian
- இறைச்சி/ɪrɐɪ̯tʃtʃiː/ Tamil
- گوشت[ɡ̥uːʃt̪ʰ] Persian
“meat” in French: viande · Italian: carne · Korean: 고기 · Hindi: मांस · Greek: κρέας
It is commonest in Tagalog, where laman is the 412th most used word.
Meat in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vleis/fləis/ #880
- Albanian toka/tɔka/ to cut or hit meat to mince it or make… #865
- Arabic لحم/laħm/ flesh, meat #641
- Armenian միս/mis/ meat; flesh #768
- Basque okela/okela/ #1,199
- Bengali মাংস/maŋʃo/ flesh, meat #697
- Bosnian meso/mêːso/ #1,252
- Bulgarian месо[mɛˈsɔ] #1,421
- Catalan carn[ˈkarn] #903
- Croatian meso/mêːso/ #1,349
- Czech maso[ˈmaso] #1,573
- Danish kød/køð/ #1,354
- Dutch vlees/vleːs/ #1,238
- English chuck/t͡ʃʌk/ Meat from the shoulder of a cow or other… #2,275
- Esperanto viando/viˈando/ #1,273
- Estonian liha/ˈlihɑ/ #953
- French viande/vjɑ̃d/ #1,737
- Galician carne/ˈkaɾne̝/ #684
- Greek κρέας/ˈkreas/ #1,513
- Hebrew בשר/baːˈɬaːr/ flesh, meat #821
- Hindi मांस/mɑːns/ #1,434
- Icelandic kjöt[ˈcʰœːt] #1,306
- Indonesian daging/ˈdaɡiŋ/ meat, flesh #759
- Italian carne/ˈkar.ne/ meat, flesh #1,213
- Korean 고기[ko̞ɡi] meat; flesh #1,117
- Latvian gaļas/ˈɡaʎas/ #1,762
- Lithuanian mėsa/mʲeːˈsɐ/ #1,496
- Macedonian месо[ˈmɛsɔ] meat, flesh #859
- Malayalam ഇറച്ചി/irɐt͡ʃt͡ʃi/ raw meat for food #736
- Persian گوشت[ɡ̥uːʃt̪ʰ] #637
- Romanian carne/ˈkarne/ #1,166
- Serbian meso/mêːso/ #1,233
- Slovak mäso/mæsɔ/ #809
- Slovenian meso/mɛsóː/ #599
- Swedish kött/ɕœtː/ meat, flesh #1,515
- Tagalog laman/laˈman/ meat; flesh #412
- Tamil இறைச்சி/ɪrɐɪ̯tʃtʃiː/ meat, flesh #1,124
- Telugu మాంసము/maːm̃samu/ flesh, meat #1,461
- Urdu گوشت/ɡoːʃt̪/ #1,093
- Vietnamese lạp[laːp̚˧˨ʔ] larb; meat salad #1,840
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.