How to say “speed” in 32 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 Tagalog, where bilis is the 137th most used word.
- Albanian shpejtësi #1,331
- Arabic سرعة #1,126
- Basque abiadura speed, velocity #910
- Bengali বেগ speed, velocity, rate #2,364
- Bulgarian скорост speed, velocity #1,584
- Catalan velocitat speed, velocity #1,594
- Chinese 加速 to accelerate; to speed up; to expedite; to… #1,373
- Czech rychlost speed, velocity #1,957
- Danish fart #1,017
- Dutch snelheid speed, velocity #1,999
- English quickly Rapidly; with speed; fast; with expedition #873
- Estonian kiirus speed, velocity #1,860
- French vitesse #1,637
- German fahren to go at speed #368
- Greek ταχύτητα speed, velocity #1,460
- Hebrew מהירות a speed, a velocity #1,415
- Korean 속도 #1,247
- Latvian ātrumu speed, velocity #1,647
- Lithuanian greitis speed, velocity #1,483
- Macedonian брзина speed, velocity #1,158
- Malay kelajuan #1,043
- Malayalam വേഗത #542
- Norwegian farten velocity, speed #1,603
- Portuguese rápido with speed; rapidly; quickly #444
- Romanian viteză #1,951
- Serbian brzina #2,495
- Slovenian hitrost speed; quickness; velocity #798
- Spanish velocidad #1,572
- Swedish fart #850
- Tagalog bilis #137
- Tamil விசை haste, speed, impetus #911
- Turkish hızla with speed #1,716
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.