How to say “thousand” in 50 different 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.
- mil/ˈmil/ Spanish
- ألف/ʔa.lif/ Arabic
- χιλιάδες/çiˈʎaðes/ Greek
- אלף/ʔalpʰ/ Hebrew
- ათასი[ätʰäsi] Georgian
- հազար/hɑˈzɑɾ/ Armenian
“thousand” in Spanish: mil · French: mille · Italian: mille · Arabic: ألف · Turkish: bin · Greek: χιλιάδες
It is commonest in Basque, where mila is the 80th most used word.
Thousand in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans duisend/ˈdœi̯.sənt/ #924
- Albanian mijë/mijə/ #625
- Arabic ألف/ʔa.lif/ #385
- Armenian հազար/hɑˈzɑɾ/ #351
- Basque mila/mila/ a thousand #80
- Bengali হাজার/had͡ʒaɾ/ #309
- Bosnian hiljada/xǐʎada/ #1,271
- Bulgarian хиляда[xiˈlʲa̟dɐ] #2,173
- Catalan mil[ˈmil] #693
- Chinese 一千/i⁵⁵⁻⁵¹ t͡ɕʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵/ one thousand #1,707
- Croatian tisuća/tîsut͡ɕa/ #1,126
- Czech tisíc[ˈcɪsiːt͡s] #844
- Danish tusind[ˈtˢuˀsənə] #1,023
- Dutch duizenden/ˈdœyzəndən/ a thousand #1,610
- English million/ˈmɪl.jən/ The cardinal number 1 000 000: 10⁶; a… #636
- Esperanto mil/mil/ #651
- Estonian tuhat/ˈtuhɑt/ one thousand #865
- Finnish tuhansia/ˈtuhanˌsia/ #2,371
- French mille/mil/ thousand, one thousand, a thousand #1,407
- Galician mil/ˈmil/ one thousand; 1000 #610
- Georgian ათასი[ätʰäsi] #561
- Greek χιλιάδες/çiˈʎaðes/ #865
- Hebrew אלף/ʔalpʰ/ thousand, one thousand #555
- Hindi लाख/lɑːkʰ/ one hundred thousand, lakh #761
- Hungarian ezer[ˈɛzɛr] #839
- Icelandic þúsund[ˈθuːsʏnt] #1,567
- Indonesian ribu/ˈribu/ #1,096
- Italian mille/ˈmil.le/ thousand, one thousand #863
- Korean 만[ma̠(ː)n] ten thousand #638
- Latvian tūkstoši/ˈtuːkstuoʃi/ #1,171
- Lithuanian tūkstantis[¹ˈtuːkstɐnʲtʲɪs] #1,800
- Macedonian илјада[ˈiʎada] #1,458
- Malay ribu/ribu/ #882
- Malayalam ആയിരം/aːjiɾɐm/ #494
- Norwegian tusen/tʉːsn̩/ thousand; 1000 #513
- Persian هزار[hæ.zɒ́ːɹ] #405
- Polish tysięcy/tɘˈɕɛn.t͡sɘ/ #1,034
- Portuguese mil/ˈmiw/ one thousand; a thousand; 1000 #486
- Romanian mie/ˈmi.e/ #331
- Serbian hiljada/xǐʎada/ #1,109
- Slovak tisíc/cisiːt͡s/ #561
- Slovenian tisoč/tíːsɔt͡ʃ/ #385
- Spanish mil/ˈmil/ #708
- Swedish tusen/ˈtʉːsɛn/ #1,161
- Tagalog libo/ˈlibo/ #516
- Tamil ஆயிரம்/ɑːjɪɾɐm/ #432
- Telugu వెయ్యి/ˈʋejji/ #623
- Turkish bin/ˈbin/ #453
- Urdu ہزار/ɦəzɑːɾ/ #773
- Vietnamese man[maːn˧˧] ten thousand; myriad #1,258
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.