How to say “poison” in 30 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 Indonesian, where bisa is the 14th most used word.
- Afrikaans gif poison; a poisonous substance #1,279
- Albanian helm poison; venom #2,002
- Arabic سم to poison #2,243
- Armenian թույն poison; venom #458
- Basque pozoitu to poison #1,609
- Bengali বিষ #873
- Bosnian otrov #1,935
- Bulgarian отрова #2,231
- Catalan verí #2,111
- Croatian otrov #1,854
- Czech jedem #1,555
- Danish giftes #1,189
- Dutch verpest to infect, poison #1,398
- German gift poison; toxin; venom #2,306
- Greek δηλητήριο poison, venom, toxin #2,212
- Hebrew רעל #2,086
- Icelandic eitur #1,667
- Indonesian bisa venom: a poison carried by an animal, usually… #14
- Lithuanian nuodai #2,224
- Malay racun #1,273
- Malayalam വിഷം #502
- Norwegian gifter #2,008
- Persian سم #523
- Serbian otrov #1,897
- Slovak jed #1,027
- Slovenian strup #758
- Swedish gifter poison, venom, toxin #1,835
- Tagalog lason #697
- Turkish zehir poison, venom, toxin #2,149
- Urdu زہر #662
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.