Afrikaans beskrywing | ||
Albanian përshkrim | ||
Amharic መግለጫ | ||
Arabic وصف | ||
Armenian նկարագրություն | ||
Assamese বিৱৰণ | ||
Aymara qillqawi | ||
Azerbaijani təsviri | ||
Bambara cogojirali | ||
Basque deskribapena | ||
Belarusian апісанне | ||
Bengali বর্ণনা | ||
Bhojpuri बिबरन | ||
Bosnian opis | ||
Bulgarian описание | ||
Catalan descripció | ||
Cebuano paghulagway | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 描述 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 描述 | ||
Corsican descrizzione | ||
Croatian opis | ||
Czech popis | ||
Danish beskrivelse | ||
Dhivehi ތަފްޞީލު | ||
Dogri ब्यौरा | ||
Dutch omschrijving | ||
English description | ||
Esperanto priskribo | ||
Estonian kirjeldus | ||
Ewe nuɖᴐɖᴐ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) paglalarawan | ||
Finnish kuvaus | ||
French la description | ||
Frisian beskriuwing | ||
Galician descrición | ||
Georgian აღწერა | ||
German beschreibung | ||
Greek περιγραφή | ||
Guarani techaukaha | ||
Gujarati વર્ણન | ||
Haitian Creole deskripsyon | ||
Hausa bayanin | ||
Hawaiian ho'ākāka | ||
Hebrew תיאור | ||
Hindi विवरण | ||
Hmong piav qhia | ||
Hungarian leírás | ||
Icelandic lýsing | ||
Igbo nkọwa | ||
Ilocano panangiladawan | ||
Indonesian deskripsi | ||
Irish tuairisc | ||
Italian descrizione | ||
Japanese 説明 | ||
Javanese katrangan | ||
Kannada ವಿವರಣೆ | ||
Kazakh сипаттама | ||
Khmer ការពិពណ៌នា | ||
Kinyarwanda ibisobanuro | ||
Konkani वर्णन | ||
Korean 기술 | ||
Krio tɔk bɔt | ||
Kurdish terîf | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) وەسف | ||
Kyrgyz сүрөттөө | ||
Lao ຄຳ ອະທິບາຍ | ||
Latin descriptio | ||
Latvian apraksts | ||
Lingala ndimbola | ||
Lithuanian apibūdinimas | ||
Luganda okunnyonnyola | ||
Luxembourgish beschreiwung | ||
Macedonian опис | ||
Maithili वर्णन | ||
Malagasy description | ||
Malay penerangan | ||
Malayalam വിവരണം | ||
Maltese deskrizzjoni | ||
Maori whakaahuatanga | ||
Marathi वर्णन | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯋꯥꯔꯣꯜ | ||
Mizo hrilhfiahna | ||
Mongolian тодорхойлолт | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ဖော်ပြချက် | ||
Nepali वर्णन | ||
Norwegian beskrivelse | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) kufotokoza | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବର୍ଣ୍ଣନା | ||
Oromo ibsa | ||
Pashto سپړنه | ||
Persian شرح | ||
Polish opis | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) descrição | ||
Punjabi ਵੇਰਵਾ | ||
Quechua willay | ||
Romanian descriere | ||
Russian описание | ||
Samoan faʻamatalaga | ||
Sanskrit वर्णनम् | ||
Scots Gaelic tuairisgeul | ||
Sepedi tlhalošo | ||
Serbian опис | ||
Sesotho tlhaloso | ||
Shona tsananguro | ||
Sindhi تفصيل | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) විස්තර | ||
Slovak popis | ||
Slovenian opis | ||
Somali sharaxaad | ||
Spanish descripción | ||
Sundanese katerangan | ||
Swahili maelezo | ||
Swedish beskrivning | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) paglalarawan | ||
Tajik тавсиф | ||
Tamil விளக்கம் | ||
Tatar тасвирлау | ||
Telugu వివరణ | ||
Thai คำอธิบาย | ||
Tigrinya መግለፂ | ||
Tsonga nhlamuselo | ||
Turkish açıklama | ||
Turkmen beýany | ||
Twi (Akan) nkyerɛmu | ||
Ukrainian опис | ||
Urdu تفصیل | ||
Uyghur description | ||
Uzbek tavsif | ||
Vietnamese sự miêu tả | ||
Welsh disgrifiad | ||
Xhosa inkcazo | ||
Yiddish באַשרייַבונג | ||
Yoruba apejuwe | ||
Zulu incazelo |
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "beskrywing" in Afrikaans originates from the Dutch word "beschrijving" and carries the same meaning. |
| Albanian | The word "përshkrim" in Albanian derives from the Proto-Albanian word *perskrem- and originally meant "account" or "report". |
| Amharic | The word "መግለጫ" is derived from the root "ገለ" (gäl), which means "to tell" or "to reveal". It can also refer to an explanation, a report, or a translation. |
| Arabic | The word "وصف" ("description") in Arabic can also mean "attribute" or "characteristic", and is derived from the root "و ص ف" ("to describe"). |
| Azerbaijani | "Təsviri" is originally an Arabic-related word meaning "illustration" (as in pictures), and can also mean "descriptive" in the sense of a written description. |
| Basque | Deskribapena means 'description' in Basque, but its root word 'deskribitu' is itself a loanword from Latin 'describere' meaning 'to write down' or 'to depict'. |
| Belarusian | The word "апісанне" can also refer to an outline, a prospectus, or a list of ingredients. |
| Bengali | In medieval Bengali, 'বর্ণনা' also meant a 'genealogical table' or a 'family tree'. |
| Bosnian | The word "opis" in Bosnian comes from the Latin word "descriptio," meaning "a writing down" or "account." |
| Bulgarian | The Russian cognate, `opisanie` can refer to `inventory`, particularly from 14th to 19th centuries. |
| Catalan | The Catalan word "descripció" is derived from the Latin word "descriptio", meaning "an account" or "a representation". |
| Cebuano | "Paghulagway" is related to two root words, which are "hulag" and "way." |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 描述 also has the meaning of 'to calculate' and is often used in mathematics, such as in the phrase '描述方程' (equation of a surface). |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The second character "述" in "描述" means "to speak" and can also be found in the word "叙述" (to narrate). |
| Corsican | "Descrizzione" is the Corsican word for "description" that is thought to derive from the Greek word "diakrisis," meaning "distinction" or "division." |
| Croatian | The word "opis" in Croatian also means "volume" or "book". |
| Czech | The word "popis" in Czech is also used in the sense of a legal document describing the condition of a property during a property transfer. |
| Danish | The word "beskrivelse" in Danish is also used to refer to a list of ingredients, a prescription, or a recipe. |
| Dutch | Omschrijving may have originated as a combination of the words 'om schrijven', which can translate as 'to rewrite' or 'to describe'. |
| Esperanto | The word 'Priskribo' also means 'prescription' or 'order' in Esperanto, reflecting its Latin root 'praescriptio', meaning 'written instruction'. |
| Estonian | The word "kirjeldus" also means "characterization" or "account" in Estonian |
| Finnish | "Kuvaus" also means 'image' in Finnish and originates from the Swedish word 'koppar' ('copperplate'). |
| French | "La description" literally means "the stripping off" in French and is cognate with "descry" in English. |
| Frisian | It derives from the Old Frisian word "biscriuing", which itself comes from the Proto-West Germanic word "*biscrijungą" meaning an inventory, listing, account, or writing. |
| Galician | The word "descrición" in Galician can also refer to a summary or outline. |
| Georgian | The word "description" derives from the Greek words "graph" and "deskriptein" which mean "write" and "to delineate" respectively. |
| German | The word "Beschreibung" originally meant "outline" or "draft" in German. |
| Greek | The word "περιγραφή" has an alternate meaning of "circumference" and comes from the combination of the preposition "περί" (around) and the noun "γραφή" (writing or drawing). |
| Gujarati | The Gujarati word "વર્ણન" can also mean "a class or type of people". "a sort" and "a variety" |
| Haitian Creole | The Haitian Creole word "deskripsyon" comes from the French word "description", which in turn comes from the Latin word "descriptio", meaning "a writing down". |
| Hausa | Hausa "bayanin" also means "explanation" and, in Islam, "sermon". |
| Hawaiian | In a figurative sense, ho'ākāka means "to make clear" or "manifest". |
| Hebrew | The word "תיאור" also means "depiction" or "representation". |
| Hindi | विवरण can also mean 'fate' or 'destiny'. |
| Hmong | The Hmong verb “piav qhia” can also mean "tell" or "narrate". |
| Hungarian | The word "leírás" also means "census" in Hungarian. |
| Icelandic | "Lysing" is etymologically related to "lost" in the sense of something that has slipped away, been lost to comprehension or memory, and "list" in the sense of a register or enumeration. |
| Igbo | The verb 'kọwa' means to 'tell, relate, or explain' |
| Indonesian | "Deskripsi" in Indonesian comes from the Dutch word "beschrijving", having the same meaning in both languages. |
| Irish | The word "tuairisc" in Irish also means "narration" or "account". |
| Italian | "Descrizione" is derived from Latin "describere," meaning "to write off," and can refer to both written and spoken accounts. |
| Japanese | The kanji "説" in "説明" originally meant "to persuade" and "明" meant "clarify", suggesting a shift in emphasis from subjective persuasion to objective clarification over time. |
| Javanese | The word "katrangan" also means "reason", "explanation", or "information" in Javanese. |
| Kannada | ವಿವರಣೆ is derived from the Sanskrit word 'vividha' meaning 'various' and 'vritti' meaning 'account' or 'exposition'. |
| Kazakh | "Сипаттама" is a Kazakh word that originally meant "image" or "portrait". |
| Khmer | The word "ការពិពណ៌នា" (description) is derived from the French word "description," which itself comes from the Latin word "describere" (to describe). |
| Korean | "기술" (description) is derived from the Chinese compound "技述" (a demonstration of skill or knowledge). |
| Kurdish | "Terîf" is also a word in Arabic and Persian that means "praise" or "compliment". The word is ultimately derived from the Akkadian word "tarāpu" meaning "to look at". |
| Kyrgyz | This Kyrgyz word for "description" also refers to "depicting" or "portraying" someone. |
| Latin | The Latin word "descriptio" also means "a geographical outline" (in ancient geography). |
| Latvian | The Latvian word “apraksts” is often used in the plural form (“apraksti”), and refers not only to descriptions of objects but also to the description of emotions. |
| Lithuanian | The word "apibūdinimas" in Lithuanian can also mean "definition" or "characterization". |
| Luxembourgish | In Luxembourgish, the word "Beschreiwung" originally meant "confession" and was later extended to mean "description" as well. |
| Macedonian | "Опис" means not only "description" but also the inventory list of the dowry or bride's estate. |
| Malagasy | In Malagasy, 'description' can also refer to an 'image' or 'painting'. |
| Malay | The word "penerangan" is derived from the Old Malay word "terang" meaning "light", and also has the alternate meaning of "explanation" or "clarification". |
| Malayalam | Malayalam വിവരണം means 'description,' but also 'information.' |
| Maltese | The word "deskrizzjoni" derives from the Italian word "descrizione" meaning "description" but can also mean "prescription" in a medical context. |
| Maori | "Whaka" refers to the causative prefix, "ahu" means "a form of clothing", hence "whakaahu" means to invest with some form of clothing." |
| Marathi | "वर्णन" also means 'caste' in Marathi, reflecting its origin from the Sanskrit word 'varṇa' meaning 'colour' or 'class'. |
| Mongolian | The word "тодорхойлолт" can also refer to a definition, an explanation, or a specification. |
| Nepali | "वर्णन" also refers to a literary style known in English as prose. |
| Norwegian | The word "beskrivelse" can also mean a written account of a person's character or appearance. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "kufotokoza" is derived from the verb "fotokoza" which means to "break into pieces" or "to unravel". |
| Pashto | The word "سپړنه" can also refer to "investigation" or "examination". |
| Persian | The word شرح (description) is derived from the Arabic verb شَرَحَ, meaning "to explain" or "to make clear." |
| Polish | The word "opis" in Polish is also derived from the Greek word "epos," meaning "word, speech, or tale," and is related to the word "epic," referring to a lengthy narrative poem. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The Portuguese word "descrição" comes from the Latin word descriptiō and it can also refer to a medical prescription. |
| Punjabi | The word "ਵੇਰਵਾ" in Punjabi derives from the Sanskrit word "वर्णन" (description), and also refers to a list of items or a specification. |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "Descriere" originates from the Greek "διαγραφή," meaning "sketch" or "outline." |
| Russian | The word "описание" in Russian can also mean "inventory" or "list of documents". |
| Samoan | "Faʻamatalaga" literally translates to "to make clear" in Samoan, reflecting its role in clarifying or explaining something. |
| Scots Gaelic | In the 19th century, 'tuairisgeul' came to have the meanings 'description' and 'narrative'. |
| Serbian | The word 'Опис' also means 'inventory' and derives from the Old-Church Slavonic word 'опись'. |
| Sesotho | The verb tlhalosa in Sesotho means "to follow with one's eyes" and so serves to emphasize that a description involves the act of following something with one's gaze, and so implies that a description "follows" that which is being described in the way that a gaze follows a moving target. |
| Shona | In many dialects, "tsananguro" also refers to the act of defining, explaining or identifying something. |
| Sindhi | In Sindhi, the word "تفصيل" can also be used to describe a type of traditional embroidery |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word "විස්තර" can also refer to a detailed account of an event or situation, or to the characteristics or qualities of something. |
| Slovak | The word "popis" also means "inventory" and "sign in" in Slovak. |
| Slovenian | Opis shares the same etymological root as optika, meaning optics, as both words stem from the Greek word optōmai, which means "to see" or "to observe. |
| Somali | The word "sharaxaad" comes from the Arabic root "sharaha" meaning "to explain" or "to clarify". |
| Spanish | The word "descripción" in Spanish is derived from the Latin word "descriptio" meaning "a marking out," and the verb "describere" meaning "to write down," "to record," or "to represent." |
| Sundanese | "Katerangan" is also the name of a type of small, round Sundanese gong used in gamelan orchestras. |
| Swahili | The Swahili word "maelezo" can also refer to an explanation or a statement. |
| Swedish | The Swedish word "beskrivning" comes from the verb "beskriva", meaning "to describe" and is related to the word "skrift", meaning "writing". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | "Paglalarawan" is also a photography term in Tagalog that literally translates to "the depiction of light" |
| Tajik | The word "тавсиф" can also refer to a "character reference" or a "commendation" in Tajik. |
| Tamil | "விளக்கம்" is also used to refer to the wick in a lamp. |
| Telugu | The word "వివరణ" in Telugu can also refer to a specific or detailed statement of particulars. |
| Thai | คำอธิบาย' derives from the Sanskrit word 'katha-upanibada', meaning 'to place a story under' or 'to explain'. |
| Turkish | Açıklama also means clear or obvious in Turkish. |
| Ukrainian | The word 'опис' can also refer to an inventory or a legal record. |
| Urdu | The Urdu word 'تفصیل' originates from the Arabic word 'فصل', which means 'to separate' or 'to distinguish', indicating the act of providing detailed information that distinguishes one thing from another. |
| Uzbek | In Uzbek, the word "tavsif" also means "characterization" or "feature". |
| Vietnamese | "Sự miêu tả" literally means "to imitate cat" in Vietnamese, but it now has the meaning of "description". |
| Welsh | The Welsh word 'disgrifiad' not only means 'description', but also 'distortion' or 'misrepresentation'. |
| Xhosa | The word 'inkcazo' in Xhosa can also refer to the physical act of writing or drawing. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "באַשרייַבונג" comes from the German word "Beschreibung" and can also mean "characterization" or "analysis." |
| Yoruba | The word "apejuwe" in Yoruba can also mean a "guide" or "pointer". |
| Zulu | While "incazel̹elo" means "descripton," the related verb "ukwazel̹a" can also mean both "to reveal" and "to recognize." |
| English | The word "description" comes from the Latin word "describere," meaning "to write down." |