Badly in Different Languages
Discover 'Badly' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Badly
Afrikaans sleg | ||
Albanian keq | ||
Amharic መጥፎ | ||
Arabic بشكل سيئ | ||
Armenian վատ | ||
Assamese বেয়াকৈ | ||
Aymara jan wali | ||
Azerbaijani pis | ||
Bambara jugumanba | ||
Basque gaizki | ||
Belarusian дрэнна | ||
Bengali খারাপভাবে | ||
Bhojpuri बुरा तरह से भइल | ||
Bosnian loše | ||
Bulgarian зле | ||
Catalan malament | ||
Cebuano daotan | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 严重地 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 嚴重地 | ||
Corsican male | ||
Croatian loše | ||
Czech špatně | ||
Danish dårligt | ||
Dhivehi ނުބައިކޮށް | ||
Dogri बुरी तरह | ||
Dutch slecht | ||
English badly | ||
Esperanto malbone | ||
Estonian halvasti | ||
Ewe vɔ̃ɖitɔe | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) masama | ||
Finnish huonosti | ||
French mal | ||
Frisian min | ||
Galician mal | ||
Georgian ცუდად | ||
German schlecht | ||
Greek κακώς | ||
Guarani ivaieterei | ||
Gujarati ખરાબ રીતે | ||
Haitian Creole mal | ||
Hausa da kyau | ||
Hawaiian maikaʻi ʻole | ||
Hebrew בצורה גרועה | ||
Hindi बुरी तरह | ||
Hmong phem | ||
Hungarian rosszul | ||
Icelandic illa | ||
Igbo merụsịrị | ||
Ilocano dakes ti kasasaadna | ||
Indonesian sangat | ||
Irish go dona | ||
Italian male | ||
Japanese ひどく | ||
Javanese ala banget | ||
Kannada ಕೆಟ್ಟದಾಗಿ | ||
Kazakh жаман | ||
Khmer អាក្រក់ណាស់ | ||
Kinyarwanda nabi | ||
Konkani वायट तरेन | ||
Korean 심하게 | ||
Krio bad bad wan | ||
Kurdish xirab | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) خراپی | ||
Kyrgyz жаман | ||
Lao ບໍ່ດີ | ||
Latin male | ||
Latvian slikti | ||
Lingala mabe mpenza | ||
Lithuanian blogai | ||
Luganda bubi nnyo | ||
Luxembourgish schlecht | ||
Macedonian лошо | ||
Maithili बुरी तरहेँ | ||
Malagasy ratsy | ||
Malay teruk | ||
Malayalam മോശമായി | ||
Maltese ħażin | ||
Maori kino | ||
Marathi वाईटरित्या | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯐꯠꯇꯕꯥ ꯃꯑꯣꯡꯗꯥ꯫ | ||
Mizo chhe takin | ||
Mongolian муу | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ဆိုးဆိုးရွားရွား | ||
Nepali नराम्ररी | ||
Norwegian dårlig | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) zoipa | ||
Odia (Oriya) ଖରାପ | ||
Oromo hamaa ta’ee | ||
Pashto بد | ||
Persian بد | ||
Polish źle | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) seriamente | ||
Punjabi ਬੁਰੀ ਤਰਾਂ | ||
Quechua mana allinta | ||
Romanian prost | ||
Russian плохо | ||
Samoan leaga | ||
Sanskrit दुष्टतया | ||
Scots Gaelic gu dona | ||
Sepedi gampe | ||
Serbian лоше | ||
Sesotho hampe | ||
Shona zvakashata | ||
Sindhi خرابي سان | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) නරක ලෙස | ||
Slovak zle | ||
Slovenian slabo | ||
Somali xun | ||
Spanish mal | ||
Sundanese parah | ||
Swahili vibaya | ||
Swedish dåligt | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) masama | ||
Tajik бад | ||
Tamil மோசமாக | ||
Tatar начар | ||
Telugu చెడుగా | ||
Thai ไม่ดี | ||
Tigrinya ብሕማቕ | ||
Tsonga hi ndlela yo biha | ||
Turkish kötü | ||
Turkmen erbet | ||
Twi (Akan) bɔne | ||
Ukrainian погано | ||
Urdu بری طرح | ||
Uyghur ناچار | ||
Uzbek yomon | ||
Vietnamese tệ | ||
Welsh yn wael | ||
Xhosa kakubi | ||
Yiddish באַדלי | ||
Yoruba buburu | ||
Zulu kabi |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | "Sleg" is a variant of "slegt", which originated from the Dutch word "slecht" meaning "bad", "poor" or "wrong". |
| Albanian | The Albanian word “keq” originates from the Proto-Albanian word *kejkʷu-, meaning “bad, evil” but also “left side”. |
| Amharic | መጥፎ derives from the Ge'ez word መጥፈት ('to be in vain') and initially meant 'in vain', 'uselessly' |
| Arabic | In Arabic, "بشكل سيئ" can also mean "in a severe manner" or "in a negative way." |
| Armenian | **Վատ** derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- ('to be lacking'), cognate with English _worse_, Old Prussian _wasts_ ('weak'), Hittite _huwassi_ ('to be less'), _wasta_ ('poor'), and Sanskrit _vasu_ ('good'). |
| Azerbaijani | The word "pis" in Azerbaijani can also mean "dirty" or "filthy". |
| Basque | The form gaizki means not only "badly" but also "difficult" or "hard to do". |
| Belarusian | "Дрэнна" (badly) is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*dьrьnъ", meaning "thorn", "nettle", or "difficulty", and is related to the Old Church Slavonic word "дрънь" (thorn), the Russian word "дрянь" (trash), and the Bulgarian word "дрен" (thorn). |
| Bengali | খারাপভাবে also means "in a serious or severe way". |
| Bosnian | The word "loše" in Bosnian can also refer to physical weakness or a lack of something. |
| Bulgarian | Originally used to refer to illness, 'зле' still often carries this meaning in modern Bulgarian. |
| Catalan | Malament comes from the Catalan term malamentum, meaning "evil" or "wickedness; harm". |
| Cebuano | The word 'daotan' is also used in Cebuano to mean 'not well-done' or 'incomplete'. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 严重地, Mandarin translation of 'badly', meaning 'bad' or 'harsh' |
| Chinese (Traditional) | Originally meant something that is of utmost importance, the word “嚴重地” is also used to express the degree of a situation’s seriousness. |
| Corsican | The Corsican word "male" can also mean "poor" or "small". |
| Croatian | The word "Loše" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "lošь", meaning "bad" or "evil." |
| Czech | The Czech word "špatně" has cognates in other Slavic languages, such as the Polish "spadnie", which means "to fall". In ancient Czech, "špatně" also had this meaning, but it has since taken on the meaning of "badly". |
| Danish | The word "dårligt" in Danish can also mean "hardly" or "scarcely." |
| Dutch | The Dutch word "slecht" can also mean "simple, humble, or insignificant." |
| Esperanto | The Esperanto word "malbone" originally meant "in an improper manner". |
| Estonian | The word "halvasti" can also mean "in vain" or "at a loss"} |
| Finnish | "Huonosti" comes from "huono" (bad) and the suffix "-sti" (adverbial), so it literally means "badly". |
| French | "Mal" can also mean "sickness" in French, as in the phrase "avoir le mal de tête" ("to have a headache"). |
| Frisian | The word "min" in Frisian can also mean "less" or "few". |
| Galician | Galician "mal" comes from Latin "male", meaning "to do something wrong". It can also mean "illness", "sickness" or "bad luck". |
| Georgian | The word 'ცუდად' (ts'udad) is derived from the Proto-Kartvelian root '*ts'ud-' meaning 'cold' or 'bad'. In Georgian, it has retained the meaning of 'bad' or 'badly'. |
| German | "Schlecht" can also mean "simply" or "without adornment". |
| Greek | The word κακώς derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂p-, meaning "to seize, hold, cover, hide, or protect". |
| Haitian Creole | The word “mal” in Haitian Creole can also mean “not” or “incorrectly.” |
| Hausa | The Hausa word "da kyau" can also mean "very well" or "beautifully." |
| Hawaiian | ‘Aika’i‘ole is used more generally than ‘ino’ to express a lack of excellence or goodness. |
| Hebrew | The phrase "בצורה גרועה" can also mean "roughly" or "approximately" in some contexts. |
| Hindi | The Sanskrit origin of "बुरी तरह" is the past tense form of the verb "vr" meaning to cover and the word means badly in both Sanskrit and Hindi and is also an adverb to mean in a negative fashion. |
| Hmong | The Hmong word "phem" can also mean "bad" or "inferior". |
| Hungarian | "Rosszul" comes from the Proto-Uralic "*roka-" meaning "faulty, wrong, bad" and has cognates such as Finnish "rukoilema" (pray), Estonian "ruugata" (curse), and Turkish "rukye" (magic spell). |
| Icelandic | The Icelandic word "illa" can also refer to "poorly" or "badly" in the sense of "unfavorably" or "unpleasantly." |
| Igbo | "Merụsịrị" is derived from the verb "rụsị" (to spoil), conveying the sense of something that is flawed or imperfect. |
| Indonesian | "Sangat" is derived from the Sanskrit word "sanghata," meaning "congregation," which explains its usage to indicate intensity or degree. |
| Irish | The archaic meaning of "go dona" was not in a negative sense but instead meant "completely" or "thoroughly". |
| Italian | The Italian word "male" can also mean "ill" or "unwell". |
| Japanese | "ひどく" is also used in the sense of "very" or "extremely" |
| Javanese | The word "ala banget" in Javanese can also mean "very good" or "extremely". |
| Kannada | The Kannada word "ಕೆಟ್ಟದಾಗಿ" can also be used to refer to something that has gone bad, such as food or milk. |
| Kazakh | The word "жаман" may also refer to something that is unfavorable or unsatisfactory. |
| Khmer | អាក្រក់ណាស់ can be used with a verb that is in the past tense to indicate an action that occurred only one time in the past. |
| Korean | 심하게 can also mean 'intensively', 'seriously', 'hard', or 'severely'. |
| Kurdish | The word "xirab" also means "ugly". |
| Kyrgyz | *Жаман* is originally of Persian origin, where *jaman* was a term denoting an unfavorable time, such as *jumanah* (bad times). |
| Lao | The word ບໍ່ດີ translates to 'badly' in English and can also be used to describe something that is 'not good'. |
| Latin | Male also meant "faulty" or "inferior" in Latin |
| Latvian | Slikti is derived from the Proto-Baltic root *sleik- meaning “bad, evil” and is related to Lithuanian *sliktis (“bad, evil”) and Old Prussian *slaiks (“bad, evil”). |
| Lithuanian | The Lithuanian word "blogai" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhlēǵ- ("to strike"), and is related to the English word "blow". |
| Luxembourgish | In the Luxembourgish dialect of German, "schlecht" can mean "quickly" or "lightly", depending on context. |
| Macedonian | The term "лошо" is also used in a secondary sense to express feelings of regret, sadness, or unhappiness. |
| Malagasy | The word "ratsy" in Malagasy also means "dirty" or "unclean". |
| Malay | "Teruk" is a Malay word meaning "badly" that was originally derived from the Sanskrit word "taruk" which means "difficult". |
| Malayalam | The word "മോശമായി" ("badly") also means "in vain" or "to no purpose". |
| Maltese | Maltese "ħażin" is of Arabic origin with the root "ha-sa-na" which means either "to be evil", or "to be good". Thus "ħażin" can sometimes mean "good" in some archaic expressions. |
| Maori | Kino also means 'faeces' or 'filth' in Maori and is related to the word 'kino' meaning 'bad' or 'evil'. |
| Marathi | The word "वाईटरित्या" (vaitrit'ya) in Marathi has a Sanskrit origin, stemming from "vyatrita"," which means "separated". |
| Mongolian | The word "муу" can also mean "wrong" or "incorrect". It is derived from the Mongolian word "муух" ("to fail") |
| Nepali | "नराम्ररी" can also mean 'without grace' or 'inappropriately'. |
| Norwegian | The word "dårlig" also means "sick" or "ill" in Norwegian. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | As its synonym 'zopalipa' reveals, 'zoipa' is based on the verb 'kuopa' (to be lame) and hence emphasizes the physical aspect of badness. |
| Pashto | 'بد' also refers to 'never doing' something in Pashto. |
| Persian | The word "بد" can also mean "badly" in Persian, but it can also mean "bad" in Arabic. |
| Polish | The original meaning of "źle" was "evil." |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "seriamente" can also mean "seriously" in Portuguese, and is derived from the Latin word "serius" meaning "grave" or "earnest." |
| Romanian | The word "prost" in Romanian also means "vulgar" or "uncivilized". |
| Russian | The Russian word "плохо" not only means "badly" but also "bad" and "sick." |
| Samoan | The word "leaga" in Samoan can also mean "lazy" or "clumsy". |
| Scots Gaelic | The word "gu dona" is an adverb and means "badly" and is derived from the Gaelic "-don" meaning "down" and "go" meaning "to". |
| Serbian | The word 'лоше' is cognate with the Russian 'лош' ('bad') and the Old Church Slavonic 'лошн', meaning either 'bad' or 'ill'. |
| Sesotho | Hampe's alternate meaning in Sesotho is 'very' or 'much,' as in 'It is very hot today.' |
| Shona | Zvakashata can also mean `in a great quantity` or `excessively` in Shona. |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word 'خرابي سان' can also mean 'in a bad state' or 'in a ruined condition'. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word "නරක ලෙස" is derived from the Sanskrit word "नरक" (hell), and it can also mean "wickedly" or "sinfully". |
| Slovak | "Zle" can also mean "sick" in Slovak, such as in "Cítim sa zle" (I feel sick). |
| Slovenian | The word "slabo" in Slovenian can also mean "weak" or "feeble" and derives from the Proto-Slavic word *sъlabъ, meaning "weak, feeble, or poor." |
| Somali | The word "xun" can also mean "a bad person" or "an evil spirit" in Somali. |
| Spanish | The Spanish "mal" can also be used as a noun, meaning "illness" or "evil," and shares its etymology with "malaise" |
| Sundanese | The word "parah" can also mean "very" or "extremely" in informal Sundanese. |
| Swahili | The word "vibaya" in Swahili can also mean "incorrectly" or "in vain". |
| Swedish | The word "dåligt" in Swedish can also mean weak, ill, poor, little, or insufficient. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The term 'masama' can also refer to an unripe piece of fruit or the poor condition of something |
| Tajik | The word "бад" in Tajik can also mean "worse" or "badly damaged" |
| Tamil | The term "மோசமாக" can refer to both bad quality and deception in Tamil. |
| Telugu | The word 'చెడుగా' can also mean 'to spoil' or 'to go bad'. |
| Thai | The root word "ไม่" is used as negation, while "ดี" can mean "good" or "well", so as a whole "ไม่ดี" can also mean "no good" or "not well". |
| Turkish | The word 'kötü' (badly) in Turkish may be derived from the Turkish word 'köt' (evil) or the Arabic word 'qat' (bad). |
| Ukrainian | The root, "погань," of the word "погано" has the connotations of "unclean," "vile," and even "diabolical" in pre-Christian Slavic tradition. |
| Urdu | The phrase literally means 'by way of the wind', which implies an action done randomly without a plan. |
| Uzbek | The word "yomon" can also mean "wrong" or "incorrect" in Uzbek. |
| Vietnamese | The word "tệ" also refers to the currency of pre-colonial Vietnam, which was a form of paper money known as "giấy tệ". |
| Welsh | "Yn wael" is formed from "yn" (a preposition meaning "in, into, or at") and "gwael" (a noun meaning "base, bottom, root") |
| Xhosa | The word "kakubi" in Xhosa can also be used to refer to a "poorly made" or "substandard" object or situation. |
| Yiddish | In addition to its common meaning of "badly," the Yiddish word "באַדלי" can also refer to a type of small barrel. |
| Yoruba | The word "buburu" can also mean "badness" or "evil" in Yoruba. |
| Zulu | The Zulu word "kabi" can also mean "not" or "never". |
| English | The word "badly" can also mean "severely" or "greatly", as in "I was badly injured in the accident." |