How to say “search” in 48 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 Vietnamese, where tìm is the 102nd most used word.
- Afrikaans soek to search, seek #179
- Albanian kërkon to look for, to seek, to search for #306
- Arabic طلب to search, to look #336
- Armenian փնտրել to look for, to search, to seek #1,610
- Basque bila looking for, in search of #108
- Bengali খোঁজ #705
- Bosnian tražio to seek, look for, search #661
- Bulgarian търся to look for, to seek, to search #697
- Catalan buscar to seek, to search for, to look for #463
- Chinese 搜查 to search; to raid #748
- Croatian tražio to seek, look for, search #636
- Czech hledat to search, to look for #917
- Danish søger to search, look #1,042
- Dutch zoek to search #351
- English research To search or examine with continued care; to… #1,560
- Esperanto serĉas to search, seek, look for #431
- Estonian otsima to search #668
- Finnish etsi to look for, seek, search #891
- Galician buscar to search for; to look for #533
- German suchen to search, to look for #441
- Greek ψάχνω to look for, hunt for, search, rummage #924
- Hebrew חיפוש searching, search #1,130
- Hindi खोज to search, to look for, to seek #609
- Hungarian keres to look for; to seek; to search for #816
- Icelandic leita to seek, to search, to look for #231
- Indonesian cari to find; to search; to seek #336
- Italian ricerca search, quest, hunt, manhunt, prospecting,… #1,038
- Korean 찾기 to search, to look for #763
- Latvian meklē to search for, to look for #500
- Lithuanian ieškoti to search, look for #658
- Macedonian барам to search, look for #376
- Malay mencari to seek, to search, to look for #197
- Persian جستجو #1,271
- Polish szukam to look for, to seek, to search #1,100
- Portuguese procura to search; to seek; to look for #400
- Romanian caut to search, seek #746
- Serbian tražio to seek, look for, search #631
- Slovak hľadať to search, to look for #542
- Slovenian iskati to search, to seek #641
- Spanish buscando to seek, search for, look for, try to find,… #500
- Swedish letar search; look throughout for something #508
- Tagalog hanapin to look for; to search for #342
- Tamil தேடல் search, seeking, pursuit, striving #1,167
- Telugu శోధన a search, trial, investigation #727
- Turkish ara to seek, to look for, to search #401
- Ukrainian шукати to look for, to seek, to search #1,057
- Urdu کھوج search, quest #2,483
- Vietnamese tìm to search, to seek, to look for #102
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.