How to say “woman” in 53 different 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.
- mujer/muˈxeɾ/ Spanish
- женщина[ˈʐɛnʲɕːɪnə] Russian
- امرأة/im.ra.ʔa/ Arabic
- 女人/ny²¹⁴⁻²¹ ɻən³⁵/ Chinese
- 여자[jʌ̹d͡ʑa̠] Korean
- γυναίκα/ʝiˈne.ka/ Greek
“woman” in Spanish: mujer · French: femme · German: frau · Italian: donna · Portuguese: mulher · Chinese: 女人 · Korean: 여자 · Russian: женщина
It is commonest in Chinese, where 女人 is the 47th most used word.
Woman in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vrou/frœu̯/ #124
- Albanian gruaja/ɡɾuaja/ #331
- Arabic امرأة/im.ra.ʔa/ #324
- Armenian օրիորդ/oˈɾjoɾtʰ/ girl; unmarried woman; maid, maiden; damsel #98
- Basque emakume/emakume/ #172
- Bengali স্ত্রী/st̪ɾi/ woman, female #352
- Bosnian žena/ʒěna/ #220
- Bulgarian бременна[ˈbrɛmɛnnɐ] pregnant woman #1,067
- Catalan noia[ˈnɔ.jə] girl, young woman #259
- Chinese 女人/ny²¹⁴⁻²¹ ɻən³⁵/ woman; adult female #47
- Croatian žena/ʒěna/ #222
- Czech žena[ˈʒɛna] #350
- Danish kvinde/ˈkvenə/ A woman #327
- Dutch vrouw/vrɑu̯/ #159
- English wife/wæf/ A married woman, especially in relation to… #307
- Esperanto virino/viˈrino/ #319
- Estonian naine/ˈnɑi̯ne/ #244
- Finnish naisen/ˈnɑi̯sen/ #629
- French femme/fam/ #158
- Galician muller/muˈɟɛɾ/ #180
- Georgian ქალი[kʰäli] #154
- German frau/fraʊ̯/ #151
- Greek γυναίκα/ʝiˈne.ka/ #166
- Hebrew אישה/ʔiʃˈʃa/ #312
- Hindi महिला/mə.ɦɪ.lɑː/ lady, female, woman #247
- Hungarian nő[ˈnøː] #252
- Icelandic kona[ˈkʰɔːna] a woman #308
- Indonesian wanita/waˈnita/ woman; lady #170
- Italian donna/ˈdɔn.na/ #267
- Korean 여자[jʌ̹d͡ʑa̠] #197
- Latvian sieviete/ˈsieʋiete/ #466
- Lithuanian mergina/mʲɛɾʲɡʲɪˈnɐ/ young woman, girl, lass #263
- Macedonian жена[ˈʒɛna] #148
- Malay wanita/waˈnita/ A female person; woman, lady #236
- Malayalam പെണ്ണ്/peɳɳɨ/ #306
- Norwegian jente/²jɛntə/ girl; young woman #398
- Persian زن[zæn] #163
- Polish kobiety/kɔˈbjɛ.tɘ/ #514
- Portuguese mulher/muˈʎɛʁ/ #185
- Romanian femeie[fe.ˈme.je] #332
- Russian женщина[ˈʐɛnʲɕːɪnə] #441
- Serbian žena/ʒěna/ #205
- Slovak žena/ʒena/ #209
- Slovenian ženska/ʒèːnska/ female, woman #222
- Spanish mujer/muˈxeɾ/ #194
- Swedish kvinna/²kvɪnːˌa/ a woman #376
- Tagalog babae/baˈbaʔe/ woman; girl; female #211
- Tamil லெஸ்பியன்/lɛsbɪjɐn/ lesbian; a homosexual woman #1,066
- Telugu మహిళ/mahiɭa/ #125
- Turkish kadın/kɑˈdɯn/ #227
- Ukrainian жінка[ˈʒʲinkɐ] #403
- Urdu عورت/ɔː.ɾət̪/ #246
- Vietnamese cổ[ko˧˩] she/her, that young adult woman #290
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.