How to say “suicide” in 36 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 Malayalam, where ആത്മഹത്യ is the 405th most used word.
- Albanian vetëvrasje #1,932
- Armenian ինքնասպանություն #1,667
- Basque suizidio #1,595
- Bengali আত্মহত্যা #768
- Bosnian samoubistvo #2,171
- Bulgarian самоубийство #1,836
- Catalan suïcidi #2,109
- Chinese 自殺 to commit suicide; to kill oneself; to take… #2,227
- Croatian samoubojstvo #1,654
- Czech sebevraždu #2,437
- Danish selvmord #1,156
- Dutch zelfmoord #1,068
- Estonian enesetapp #1,791
- French suicide to commit suicide, to kill oneself, suicide #1,899
- German selbstmord #2,076
- Greek αυτοκτονία #2,224
- Hebrew התאבדות #1,535
- Hindi आत्महत्या #2,116
- Korean 자살 #1,077
- Lithuanian savižudybė #2,017
- Macedonian самоубиство #1,566
- Malayalam ആത്മഹത്യ #405
- Norwegian selvmord #1,381
- Polish samobójstwo #2,181
- Portuguese suicídio #2,231
- Romanian sinucidere #2,254
- Serbian samoubistvo #1,831
- Slovak samovražda #1,440
- Slovenian samomor #678
- Swedish självmord #1,477
- Tagalog magpakamatay to commit suicide #1,006
- Tamil தற்கொலை #1,740
- Telugu ఆత్మహత్య #653
- Turkish intihar #1,321
- Ukrainian самогубство #2,435
- Urdu خودکشی #1,328
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.