How to say “white” in 49 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 வெள்ளை is the 246th most used word.
- Afrikaans wit #564
- Albanian bardhë #538
- Arabic أبيض #1,036
- Armenian սպիտակ #806
- Bengali শ্বেত #2,170
- Bulgarian бял #1,298
- Catalan blanc #1,003
- Chinese 白人 white person; Caucasian #696
- Czech bílý #1,947
- Danish hvide #737
- Dutch witte #1,029
- English milk A white liquid produced by the mammary glands… #1,450
- Esperanto blanka #972
- Estonian valge #726
- Finnish valkoinen #1,670
- French blanc white color #970
- Galician branco #517
- Georgian თეთრი #308
- German weißen #1,592
- Greek λευκό The colour white #1,425
- Hebrew לבן #630
- Hungarian fehér #606
- Icelandic hvítur #1,330
- Indonesian putih #634
- Italian bianco #1,182
- Korean 백인 white person #913
- Latvian balto #1,408
- Lithuanian balta #1,617
- Macedonian бел #945
- Malay putih Being white in colour #567
- Malayalam വെളുത്ത #651
- Norwegian hvite #730
- Persian سفید #1,248
- Polish biały #1,933
- Portuguese branco #1,067
- Romanian alb #1,033
- Russian белый #1,699
- Serbian beli #1,839
- Slovak biely #911
- Slovenian bel #1,145
- Spanish blanco #835
- Swedish vita #864
- Tagalog puti #752
- Tamil வெள்ளை #246
- Telugu తెలుపు #401
- Turkish beyaz #503
- Ukrainian білий #1,851
- Urdu سفید #417
- Vietnamese trắng #784
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.