How to say “universe” in 31 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 Greek, where κόσμο is the 262nd most used word.
- Afrikaans heelal #1,718
- Armenian աշխարհ world, universe #1,466
- Basque unibertso #1,548
- Bengali মহাবিশ্ব #2,390
- Bosnian svemir space, universe #1,800
- Bulgarian свят world, earth, universe #359
- Catalan univers #1,274
- Chinese 宇宙 universe; cosmos; macrocosm; space #463
- Croatian svemir space, universe #1,697
- Danish universet #2,374
- Dutch universum #2,176
- Esperanto universo #1,371
- Estonian universumi #1,770
- French univers #1,731
- Galician universo #2,177
- Georgian სამყარო world, Universe #528
- Greek κόσμο Universe, cosmos #262
- Hindi विश्व #1,166
- Indonesian alam universe: the sum of everything that exists… #735
- Italian universo #1,927
- Latvian kosmosa cosmos, universe, outer space #1,768
- Malayalam പ്രപഞ്ചം The Universe, cosmos #1,219
- Persian جهان world, universe #593
- Portuguese universo #1,809
- Romanian univers #2,294
- Serbian svemir space, universe #1,876
- Spanish universo #1,637
- Swedish universum #2,125
- Tamil பிரபஞ்சம் the universe, cosmos #1,937
- Ukrainian всесвіт #1,644
- Urdu کائنات the universe #912
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.