How to say “whole” in 48 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 Hebrew, where כל is the 16th most used word.
- Afrikaans gaaf whole, complete #297
- Arabic صحيح complete, perfect, whole #65
- Armenian ողջ whole, entire #158
- Basque urtebete whole year #662
- Bengali সারা whole, entire #425
- Bosnian svih all, complete, whole #485
- Bulgarian цял entire, whole, all, full, intact, in one… #458
- Catalan sencer whole, entire #1,795
- Chinese 世上 in all of the world; in the whole world; on… #538
- Croatian svih all, complete, whole #485
- Czech celý #335
- Danish hele whole, entire, complete, full #118
- Dutch hele complete, full, whole #203
- English piece A part of a larger whole, usually in such a… #687
- Esperanto tuta whole, entire #214
- Estonian kogu all, whole, entire #151
- Finnish koko whole, entire #113
- French public of the people as a whole #1,037
- Galician enteiro #1,390
- German ganze entire, whole, complete #282
- Greek όλοι whole, entire #120
- Hebrew כל All, whole, entirety, everything; found… #16
- Hindi पूरी #245
- Hungarian egészet entirety, whole #821
- Icelandic almennt generally, on the whole #2,367
- Indonesian seluruh whole, entire, all #286
- Italian intero whole, entire #1,257
- Korean 온 all, whole, entire #136
- Latvian visu all, whole, entire #56
- Lithuanian visas all, whole, entire; all, every #229
- Macedonian сите entire, whole, all #54
- Malay seluruh the whole, the entire #301
- Malayalam മൊത്തം #266
- Norwegian hele whole, unbroken #139
- Polish cały whole, complete, entire; all #225
- Portuguese inteiro whole; entire; in full #1,329
- Romanian toate all, the whole #113
- Russian всех all, the whole, all of, the whole of, the… #162
- Serbian svih all, complete, whole #472
- Slovak celý #178
- Slovenian cel #331
- Spanish entero whole; entire #1,956
- Swedish hela #137
- Tamil எல்லாம் the whole, entire; throughout #112
- Turkish hepsi all, all of it, the whole #213
- Ukrainian весь all, the whole #243
- Urdu پورا whole, entire #496
- Vietnamese ám a dish of whole poached fish served with… #1,041
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.