How to say “spirit” in 40 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 Estonian, where kurat is the 178th most used word.
- Afrikaans gees mind, spirit #733
- Albanian shpirt soul, spirit #380
- Arabic روح spirit, ghost #831
- Basque espiritu #1,012
- Bengali ভূত ghost, apparition, spirit #1,211
- Bosnian duh ghost, spirit #993
- Catalan esperit #1,577
- Chinese 精神 spirit; soul; will #324
- Croatian duh ghost, spirit #975
- Czech duch #1,533
- Danish ånd spirit, mind #2,006
- Dutch geest ghost, spirit, immaterial being #838
- English soul The spirit or essence of a person usually… #921
- Esperanto spiritoj #1,901
- Estonian kurat a devil, an evil spirit #178
- Galician espírito #918
- Georgian სული spirit, ghost #728
- German geist #1,110
- Greek ψυχή soul, spirit usually thought to consist of… #917
- Hindi तेज spirit, vigour, life #704
- Hungarian szellem spirit, mentality #1,798
- Indonesian setan the supreme evil spirit in the Abrahamic… #1,060
- Italian spirito spirit, mind #1,454
- Korean 귀신 ghost, spirit #1,641
- Latvian gars #1,281
- Lithuanian siela soul, spirit #1,057
- Norwegian ånd spirit, mind #2,483
- Persian روح #469
- Polish duszę soul, spirit #2,255
- Portuguese espírito #1,323
- Romanian sufletul soul, spirit #1,022
- Russian дух #2,046
- Serbian duh ghost, spirit #911
- Spanish espíritu spirit, soul #1,426
- Tagalog kaluluwa soul; spirit; essence #1,286
- Tamil ஆன்மா soul, self, spirit, as opp. to matter #626
- Turkish ruh soul, spirit #1,079
- Ukrainian біса evil spirit, demon #440
- Urdu روح soul, spirit #1,301
- Vietnamese vong departed soul or spirit #1,742
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.