How to say “music” in 48 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.
- música/ˈmusika/ Spanish
- музыка[ˈmuzɨkə] Russian
- موسيقى/muː.siː.qaː/ Arabic
- 音樂/in⁵⁵ ɥɛ⁵¹/ Chinese
- 음악[ɯma̠k̚] Korean
- संगीत/səŋ.ɡiːt̪/ Hindi
“music” in Spanish: música · French: musique · German: musik · Italian: musica · Portuguese: música · Chinese: 音樂 · Korean: 음악 · Russian: музыка
It is commonest in Tamil, where இசை is the 131st most used word.
Music in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans musiek/mœˈsik/ #304
- Albanian muzikë/muˈzik(ə)/ #960
- Arabic موسيقى/muː.siː.qaː/ #970
- Basque musika/mus̺ika/ #332
- Bengali সঙ্গীত/ʃɔŋɡit̪/ music, song #1,805
- Bosnian muzika/mǔzika/ #1,483
- Bulgarian музика[ˈmuzikɐ] #817
- Catalan música[ˈmu.zi.kə] #870
- Chinese 音樂/in⁵⁵ ɥɛ⁵¹/ #1,810
- Croatian glazba/ɡlǎzba/ #1,230
- Czech hudba[ˈɦudba] #1,534
- Danish spiller/spelər/ music player #510
- Dutch muziek/myˈzik/ #794
- Esperanto muziko/muˈziko/ #471
- Estonian muusika/ˈmuˑsikɑ/ #891
- Finnish musiikkia/ˈmusɪːˌkːia/ #1,737
- French musique/my.zik/ #603
- Galician música[ˈmusikɐ] #554
- German musik/muˈziːk/ #291
- Greek μουσική[musiˈci] the subject and art of music #710
- Hebrew מוזיקה/ˈmuː.ziː.qɔː/ #1,257
- Hindi संगीत/səŋ.ɡiːt̪/ #384
- Hungarian zene[ˈzɛnɛ] #1,527
- Indonesian musik/ˈmusik/ #650
- Italian musica/ˈmu.zi.ka/ #663
- Korean 음악[ɯma̠k̚] #472
- Latvian mūzika/ˈmuːzika/ #1,279
- Lithuanian muzika[ˈmʊzʲɪkɐ] #781
- Macedonian музика[ˈmuzika] #770
- Malay musik/ˈmusik/ #1,756
- Malayalam സംഗീതം/sɐŋɡiːd̪ɐm/ song, music #497
- Norwegian musikk/mʉˈsɪk/ #1,066
- Persian موسیقی[muː.siː.ʁíː] #1,792
- Polish muzyka/ˈmu.zɘ.ka/ #1,807
- Portuguese música/ˈmu.zi.kɐ/ #614
- Romanian muzică/ˈmu.zi.kə/ #1,283
- Russian музыка[ˈmuzɨkə] #1,456
- Serbian muzika/mǔzika/ #1,446
- Slovak hudbu/ɦudbu/ #772
- Slovenian glasba/ɡláːzba/ #591
- Spanish música/ˈmusika/ #572
- Swedish musik/mʉˈsiːk/ #1,026
- Tamil இசை/ɪtʃɐɪ̯/ music, song #131
- Telugu లయ/ˈlaja/ beating time in music and dancing #881
- Turkish müzik/myˈzic/ #668
- Ukrainian музика[ˈmuzekɐ] #1,218
- Urdu موسیقی/muː.siː.qiː/ #478
- Vietnamese nhạc[ɲaːk̚˧˨ʔ] #773
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.