How to say “secret” in 47 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 Urdu, where پوشیدہ is the 164th most used word.
- Arabic سري secret, hidden, clandestine #1,258
- Basque sekretu #642
- Bengali গুপ্ত #1,216
- Bosnian tajna #981
- Bulgarian тая to keep something secret or concealed #897
- Catalan secret #597
- Chinese 秘密 #197
- Croatian tajna #989
- Czech tajemství #754
- Danish hemmelighed #1,218
- Dutch geheime #1,152
- English mystery Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown #2,088
- Esperanto sekreto a secret; private affair; confidentiality #1,153
- Estonian saladus #1,071
- Finnish salainen secret, clandestine #2,230
- Galician segredo #1,171
- German geheimnis #1,203
- Greek μυστικό #787
- Hebrew סוד #1,100
- Hindi गुप्त secret; private; hidden, clandestine;… #958
- Hungarian titkos secret, hidden, concealed #949
- Icelandic leyndarmál #803
- Indonesian rahasia secret, confidential #437
- Italian segreto #835
- Korean 비밀 #494
- Latvian noslēpumu #996
- Lithuanian paslaptis #692
- Macedonian тајна #592
- Malay rahsia secret; confidential #435
- Malayalam രഹസ്യം #374
- Norwegian hemmelig #1,131
- Persian راز #878
- Polish sekret #2,263
- Portuguese segredo #941
- Romanian secret secret, hidden #804
- Russian секрет #1,538
- Serbian tajna #993
- Slovak tajomstvo #578
- Slovenian skrivnost #371
- Spanish secreto #706
- Swedish hemlighet #1,217
- Tagalog lihim #600
- Tamil ரகசியம் secret, mystery #559
- Telugu అంతస్తు a secret place a hiding place, a corner #782
- Turkish gizli #471
- Ukrainian секрет #1,433
- Urdu پوشیدہ hidden, concealed, secret, not visible #164
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.