How to say “stupid” in 43 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 முட்டாள் is the 186th most used word.
- Afrikaans domkop A stupid person, dunce, duffer, dumbass #1,354
- Arabic سخيف stupid, absurd, ridiculous, silly #558
- Armenian հիմար stupid, foolish, idiotic, moronic #599
- Basque ergel silly, stupid #396
- Bosnian glupo stupid, foolish #859
- Bulgarian глупав stupid, silly #1,082
- Catalan estúpid #979
- Chinese 愚蠢 stupid; foolish; unwise #373
- Croatian glupo stupid, foolish #868
- Czech hloupý #1,649
- Danish dum stupid, dense, dumb, thick, dim #632
- Esperanto stulta #473
- Estonian loll stupid, dumb, foolish #639
- Finnish tyhmä stupid, dumb, dull #1,046
- French idiot idiotic; stupid #785
- Galician parvo foolish, stupid #702
- German dumm dumb, stupid #933
- Greek ηλίθιος #987
- Hebrew אידיוט A idiot: a stupid person #560
- Hindi मूर्ख stupid, dumb, foolish, idiotic #465
- Hungarian hülye idiotic, imbecile, stupid #440
- Icelandic heimskur stupid, foolish, dumb #973
- Indonesian bodoh stupid, foolish #249
- Italian stupido stupid, daft #703
- Latvian muļķi fool, stupid man #1,178
- Lithuanian kvailas #495
- Macedonian глупав stupid, idiotic #679
- Malay bingung #1,745
- Malayalam മണ്ടൻ stupid, fool #1,041
- Persian ابله dumb, stupid, feeble-minded #2,408
- Polish głupi stupid, dumb; silly #896
- Portuguese estúpido #848
- Serbian glupo stupid, foolish #843
- Slovak hlúpy #720
- Slovenian neumen #464
- Spanish estúpido #801
- Swedish dum stupid, dumb #703
- Tagalog tanga stupid; foolish; ignorant; slow-witted #244
- Tamil முட்டாள் fool, stupid, idiot, simpleton, dunce #186
- Turkish aptalca befitting someone stupid, idiotically,… #807
- Ukrainian дурний #1,795
- Urdu احمق stupid, idiotic, foolish #824
- Vietnamese ngu stupid; idiotic; moronic #571
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.