How to say “uncle” in 46 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 Chinese, where 叔叔 is the 267th most used word.
- Afrikaans oom #355
- Albanian xhaxha paternal uncle #1,044
- Armenian հորեղբայր paternal uncle #652
- Basque osaba #405
- Bengali মামা maternal uncle #614
- Bosnian ujak maternal uncle #1,515
- Bulgarian чичо paternal uncle #521
- Catalan oncle #708
- Chinese 叔叔 paternal uncle #267
- Croatian ujak maternal uncle #1,448
- Czech strýc #2,428
- Danish onkel #700
- Dutch oom #768
- Esperanto onklo #498
- Estonian onu #592
- French oncle #763
- Galician tío #362
- Georgian ძია #821
- German onkel #726
- Greek θείος #1,284
- Hebrew דוד #654
- Hindi अंकल #1,332
- Hungarian bácsi #1,574
- Icelandic frændi an uncle #453
- Indonesian paman #581
- Italian zio #860
- Korean 삼촌 uncle; male sibling of a parent #577
- Latvian tēvoci #1,182
- Lithuanian dėdė #717
- Macedonian чичко #800
- Malay paman #1,399
- Malayalam വല്യച്ഛൻ older paternal uncle #1,434
- Norwegian onkel an uncle #836
- Persian عمو paternal uncle #652
- Polish wujek maternal uncle #1,927
- Portuguese tio #732
- Russian дядя #1,058
- Serbian ujak maternal uncle #1,646
- Slovak strýko paternal uncle #589
- Slovenian stric #365
- Spanish tío #333
- Swedish farbror a paternal uncle #941
- Telugu మామ maternal uncle #1,413
- Turkish amca paternal uncle, one's father's brother #949
- Ukrainian дядько #1,186
- Urdu انکل #1,451
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.