How to say “witch” in 33 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 Esperanto, where sorĉistino is the 575th most used word.
- Afrikaans heks #1,265
- Albanian shtrigë Shtriga, a vampiric witch in traditional… #2,200
- Arabic ساحرة sorceress, witch #1,335
- Basque sorgin witch, evil, crone #1,056
- Bengali ডাইনি a witch #1,263
- Bosnian veštica witch, sorceress #2,252
- Bulgarian вещица witch, sorceress #2,114
- Catalan bruixa #1,389
- Chinese 女巫 witch; sorceress #967
- Croatian vještica witch, sorceress #1,731
- Danish heks a witch #1,847
- Dutch heks #2,055
- Esperanto sorĉistino witch, sorceress #575
- Estonian nõid #1,234
- French sorcière witch, sorceress #2,322
- German hexe witch, sorceress #2,019
- Greek μάγισσα witch, sorceress #2,055
- Hebrew מכשפה #1,837
- Hindi चुड़ैल witch, demoness #1,601
- Icelandic norn #1,843
- Italian strega witch, hag #2,436
- Korean 마녀 witch, sorceress #1,958
- Latvian ragana #1,747
- Lithuanian ragana #1,236
- Macedonian вештерка witch, sorceress #1,690
- Persian ساحره witch, sorceress #2,396
- Portuguese bruxa #2,338
- Serbian veštica witch, sorceress #1,621
- Slovak bosorka #2,426
- Slovenian čarovnica #789
- Spanish bruja witch, sorceress #2,377
- Tagalog bruha hag; witch #2,113
- Urdu ڈائن witch; sorceress #1,101
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.