How to say “skin” in 41 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.
- piel/ˈpjel/ Spanish
- جلد/d͡ʒild/ Arabic
- त्वचा/t̪ʋə.t͡ʃɑː/ Hindi
- δέρμα[ˈðɛɾma] Greek
- עור/oʁ/ Hebrew
- քերթել/kʰeɾˈtʰel/ Armenian
“skin” in Spanish: piel · Italian: pelle · Portuguese: pele · Arabic: جلد · Hindi: त्वचा · Turkish: ten · Greek: δέρμα
It is commonest in Vietnamese, where da is the 592nd most used word.
Skin in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vel/fɛl/ A skin, a hide #1,075
- Albanian lëkurën/ləkuɾən/ #1,857
- Arabic جلد/d͡ʒild/ skin, hide #2,133
- Armenian քերթել/kʰeɾˈtʰel/ to skin, flay #1,012
- Basque azal/as̻al/ #884
- Bengali ছাল/t͡ʃʰal/ skin, bark, rind #2,495
- Bosnian kožu/ˈkoʒʊ/ #2,087
- Bulgarian кожа[ˈkɔʒɐ] #1,810
- Catalan pell[ˈpeʎ] #1,040
- Croatian kožu/ˈkoʒʊ/ #2,020
- Czech kůži[ˈkuːʒɪ] #1,746
- Danish hud/huːˀð/ #1,850
- Dutch zweer/zʋeːr/ a purulent boil, skin injury containing pus,… #983
- English feel/ˈfiːl/ To become aware of through the skin; to use… #189
- Esperanto haŭto/ˈhau̯to/ #1,632
- Estonian nahka/ˈnɑhkɑ/ #1,343
- French peau/po/ skin of a person or animal #1,061
- Greek δέρμα[ˈðɛɾma] #1,479
- Hebrew עור/oʁ/ #1,241
- Hindi त्वचा/t̪ʋə.t͡ʃɑː/ #1,633
- Indonesian kulit/ˈkulit/ #767
- Italian pelle/ˈpɛl.le/ #1,226
- Korean 살[sʰa̠ɭ] flesh; skin #249
- Latvian ādas/ˈaːdas/ skin body #1,744
- Lithuanian oda[ˈôːd̪ɐ] #1,025
- Macedonian кожа[ˈkɔʒa] #1,255
- Malayalam തൊലി/t̪oli/ skin, the outer protective layer of the body… #864
- Norwegian huden/ˈhʉːdn̩/ #2,302
- Persian پوست[pʰuːst̪ʰ] #674
- Portuguese pele/ˈpɛ.li/ #1,207
- Romanian piele[ˈpjele] #1,620
- Serbian kožu/ˈkoʒʊ/ #2,006
- Slovak kožu/kɔʒu/ #1,272
- Slovenian koža/kòːʒa/ #1,021
- Spanish piel/ˈpjel/ #1,319
- Tagalog negro/ˈneɡɾo/ having dark pigmentation of the skin #1,321
- Tamil திரை/t̪ɪɾɐɪ̯/ to become wrinkled, as skin by age; be… #952
- Telugu తోలు/t̪oːlu/ #1,896
- Turkish ten/tɛn/ #877
- Urdu کلو/kəl.luː/ black, dark, someone of dark skin #1,470
- Vietnamese da[zaː˧˧] #592
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.