How to say “storm” in 34 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 Tamil, where புயல் is the 248th most used word.
- Afrikaans storm #1,231
- Albanian stuhi #1,579
- Arabic عاصفة #1,626
- Armenian փոթորիկ storm; hurricane #1,203
- Basque ekaitz #1,117
- Bengali তুফান #2,234
- Bosnian oluja #1,901
- Bulgarian буря storm, tempest #1,853
- Catalan tempesta storm, tempest #1,731
- Croatian oluja #1,988
- Dutch storm storm; a wind scale for very strong wind,… #1,885
- Esperanto ŝtormo #2,305
- Estonian torm #1,531
- Galician tormenta #1,797
- Georgian ქარიშხალი #1,004
- Greek καταιγίδα thunderstorm, storm #2,119
- Hungarian vihar #2,494
- Indonesian badai #1,169
- Korean 폭풍 #1,764
- Latvian vētra storm which causes strong waves and land… #1,709
- Lithuanian audra #1,129
- Malay ribut #1,017
- Persian طوفان storm, tempest #1,104
- Portuguese tempestade #1,943
- Romanian furtună storm, tempest, squall #2,332
- Serbian oluja #1,887
- Slovak búrka #1,153
- Slovenian nevihta #932
- Spanish tormenta #2,068
- Tamil புயல் storm, gale, tempest #248
- Telugu తుఫాను storm, tempest #354
- Turkish fırtına storm, tempest #1,871
- Urdu طوفان storm, tempest #679
- Vietnamese bão #1,354
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.