Hour in Different Languages
Discover 'Hour' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Hour
Afrikaans uur | ||
Albanian orë | ||
Amharic ሰአት | ||
Arabic ساعة | ||
Armenian ժամ | ||
Assamese ঘণ্টা | ||
Aymara pacha | ||
Azerbaijani saat | ||
Bambara lɛrɛ | ||
Basque ordu | ||
Belarusian гадзіну | ||
Bengali ঘন্টা | ||
Bhojpuri घंटा | ||
Bosnian sat | ||
Bulgarian час | ||
Catalan hores | ||
Cebuano oras | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 小时 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 小時 | ||
Corsican ora | ||
Croatian sat | ||
Czech hodina | ||
Danish time | ||
Dhivehi ގަޑިއިރު | ||
Dogri घैंटा | ||
Dutch uur | ||
English hour | ||
Esperanto horo | ||
Estonian tund | ||
Ewe gaƒoƒo | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) oras | ||
Finnish tunnin | ||
French heure | ||
Frisian oere | ||
Galician hora | ||
Georgian საათი | ||
German stunde | ||
Greek ώρα | ||
Guarani aravo | ||
Gujarati કલાક | ||
Haitian Creole èdtan | ||
Hausa awa | ||
Hawaiian hola | ||
Hebrew שָׁעָה | ||
Hindi घंटा | ||
Hmong teev | ||
Hungarian óra | ||
Icelandic klukkustund | ||
Igbo aka elekere | ||
Ilocano oras | ||
Indonesian jam | ||
Irish uair an chloig | ||
Italian ora | ||
Japanese 時間 | ||
Javanese jam | ||
Kannada ಗಂಟೆ | ||
Kazakh сағат | ||
Khmer ម៉ោង | ||
Kinyarwanda isaha | ||
Konkani वर | ||
Korean 시 | ||
Krio awa | ||
Kurdish seet | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) کاتژمێر | ||
Kyrgyz саат | ||
Lao ຊົ່ວໂມງ | ||
Latin hora | ||
Latvian stunda | ||
Lingala ngonga | ||
Lithuanian valandą | ||
Luganda essaawa | ||
Luxembourgish stonn | ||
Macedonian час | ||
Maithili घंटा | ||
Malagasy ora | ||
Malay jam | ||
Malayalam മണിക്കൂർ | ||
Maltese siegħa | ||
Maori haora | ||
Marathi तास | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯄꯨꯡ | ||
Mizo darkar | ||
Mongolian цаг | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) နာရီ | ||
Nepali घण्टा | ||
Norwegian time | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) ola | ||
Odia (Oriya) ଘଣ୍ଟା | ||
Oromo sa'a | ||
Pashto ساعت | ||
Persian ساعت | ||
Polish godzina | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) hora | ||
Punjabi ਘੰਟਾ | ||
Quechua hora | ||
Romanian ora | ||
Russian час | ||
Samoan itula | ||
Sanskrit घटकः | ||
Scots Gaelic uair | ||
Sepedi iri | ||
Serbian сат | ||
Sesotho hora | ||
Shona awa | ||
Sindhi ڪلاڪ | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) පැය | ||
Slovak hodinu | ||
Slovenian uro | ||
Somali saac | ||
Spanish hora | ||
Sundanese jam | ||
Swahili saa | ||
Swedish timme | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) oras | ||
Tajik соат | ||
Tamil மணி | ||
Tatar сәгать | ||
Telugu గంట | ||
Thai ชั่วโมง | ||
Tigrinya ሰዓት | ||
Tsonga awara | ||
Turkish saat | ||
Turkmen sagat | ||
Twi (Akan) dɔnhwere | ||
Ukrainian год | ||
Urdu گھنٹے | ||
Uyghur سائەت | ||
Uzbek soat | ||
Vietnamese giờ | ||
Welsh awr | ||
Xhosa yure | ||
Yiddish שעה | ||
Yoruba wakati | ||
Zulu ihora |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The Afrikaans word "uur" comes from the Middle Dutch "ure", meaning "hour" or "time". |
| Albanian | The word "orë" in Albanian also means "time", "occasion", or "moment". |
| Amharic | The term ሰአት (hour) is derived from the word ሰዓተ (time) and also refers to a time of day marked by religious observance |
| Arabic | "ساعة" can also mean "watch" or "clock" in Arabic. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word «ժամ» comes from Old Armenian «ժամու» ('jamu', 'time', 'season', 'chronological sequence, order', 'order', 'sequence', etc.) of Indo-European origin, related to English time, Greek χρόνος (chronos) and possibly to Ancient Egyptian «Smn» ('summer'). |
| Azerbaijani | "Saat" also means "watch" in Azerbaijani. |
| Basque | The Basque word 'ordu' can also mean 'time' or 'moment' and is related to the Latin word 'hora' (hour). |
| Belarusian | The word "гадзіну" in Belarusian is cognate with the Russian word "година" (hour) and the Ukrainian word "година" (year). |
| Bengali | ঘন্টা means both 'hour' and 'bell' in Bengali, and is derived from the Sanskrit word 'ghanta', meaning 'bell'. |
| Bosnian | The word "sat" in Bosnian, meaning 'hour', comes from Latin "hora" and is also found in languages like Russian and Ukrainian. |
| Bulgarian | The word "час" in Bulgarian can also mean "time" or "fate". |
| Catalan | The Spanish word "hora" and the Catalan word "hores" derive from the Ancient Greek word "ὥρα" and its Medieval Greek derivatives, all referring to a division of time. |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word "oras" may also mean a time or season, or the specific time appointed for an event. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 小时 is a contraction of 小時辰, meaning 'small time unit', referring to the 12 two-hour periods of the traditional Chinese day. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | In Chinese, the character “小時” can also mean "a short time" or "a moment". |
| Corsican | The Corsican word `ora` can also mean the time of day when animals drink (e.g., from a waterhole). |
| Croatian | The Croatian word "sat" is cognate with the English word "sun" and originally meant "time of the sun". |
| Czech | The word "hodina" has a second meaning, which is "class". |
| Danish | The Danish word "tid" (time) has an Old Norse origin, meaning "time", and "period". |
| Dutch | "Uur" (hour) also means "tide" in Dutch. |
| Esperanto | "Horoọ" comes from the Latin "hxf4ra" or Greek word xf5xe1xe1 meaning hour or season, but is not related to Esperanto "horloọ" (clock) or "horixf9o" (horizon). It is also a Hawaiian dance. |
| Estonian | In Estonian, the word "tund" can also mean a "lecture" or a "lesson", and it is derived from the German word "Stunde". |
| Finnish | The Finnish word "tunnin" can also refer to a specific quantity of a product, such as a liter of milk or a kilogram of cheese. |
| French | The word "heure" in French is cognate with the Latin word "hora" and the Greek word "ὥρα" (hṓra), meaning "season" or "time". |
| Frisian | In Old Frisian, "oer" could also refer to a "period of time" or "time of day". |
| Galician | The Galician word "hora" also means "time" or "season of the year." |
| Georgian | The Georgian word "საათი" is cognate with Persian "saat" and ultimately derives from the Greek "ὥρα" (hōra). |
| German | The German word "Stunde" derives from the old Germanic "stunda" or "stunde", also referring to a measure of time of approximately an hour. |
| Greek | In ancient Greek, "ώρα" also meant "season" or "appropriate time". |
| Gujarati | The Gujarati word "કલાક" also refers to a traditional water clock used to measure time, consisting of a pot with a small hole in the bottom that would slowly fill up and empty. |
| Haitian Creole | "Èdtan" can also mean "a moment" or "a little while". |
| Hausa | The word "awa" in Hausa can also refer to a period of time equal to about 24 hours or a day. |
| Hawaiian | The word "hola" in Hawaiian can also mean "to be hot" or "to burn" indicating the feeling of warmth associated with an hour of sunlight. |
| Hebrew | "שָׁעָה" is also used in Hebrew to refer to a time of day or night, or to a specific time in the future. |
| Hindi | In addition to denoting 'hour,' 'घंटा' also refers to a bell, clock, or chime that strikes at regular intervals. |
| Hmong | In Hmong, the word “teev” (“hour”) derives from two older words, “teeb” and “teev,” which originally meant “sun” or “day.” |
| Hungarian | "Óra" means "hour" in Hungarian, but it is cognate with the Romanian word "horă" (meaning "time, dance") and the Albanian word "ora" (meaning "now"). |
| Icelandic | The word "klukkustund" originally referred to the time it took to recite the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary three times. |
| Igbo | The Igbo word 'aka elekere' literally translates to 'the hand of time'. |
| Indonesian | The word "jam" in Indonesian also means "traffic jam" or "jelly". |
| Irish | "Uair an chloig" also means "bell-hour" or "prayer-hour," showing the influence of Christian practices in shaping Irish vocabulary. |
| Italian | The word "ora" in Italian can also mean "now" or "edge". |
| Japanese | The word "時間" (じかん) can also mean "season", "weather", or "timing", highlighting the nuanced relationship between time and natural phenomena in Japanese culture. |
| Javanese | The word "jam" in Javanese refers to the fruit preserve, the verb "to block" (a road), and the numeral "3". |
| Kannada | The word "ಗಂಟೆ" (hour) is derived from the Sanskrit word "घण्टा" (bell), as in earlier times, a bell was rung to mark the end of an hour. |
| Kazakh | In Kazakh, "сағат" can also mean "clock" or "watch" in addition to "hour". |
| Khmer | The word ម៉ោង can also refer to bells, clocks, chimes, or other time-keeping instruments, especially in a temple context. |
| Korean | In Middle Korean, 시 (si) meant 'time' and referred to a period of time that varies depending on the context. |
| Kurdish | The word "seet" is also used in some regions to mean "the time between sunrise and noon". |
| Kyrgyz | The Kyrgyz word "саат" is derived from the Persian word "saat" and can also mean "watch" or "timepiece". |
| Lao | ຊົ່ວໂມງ is cognate to the Thai word ชั่วโมง, and shares a common etymology with |
| Latin | "Hora" in Latin also refers to "a point in time" or "a season". |
| Latvian | "Stunda" also means "lesson" in Latvian, potentially originating from the medieval practice of teaching catechism to Christian children for an hour. |
| Lithuanian | In Lithuanian, the word valandą (hour) originates from the root of valyti (to clean, to tidy up), which reflects a belief that keeping one's house tidy was an important way to maintain harmony with nature. |
| Luxembourgish | The word "Stonn" in Luxembourgish can also refer to a specific time interval, usually lasting about 15 minutes, used in everyday speech to indicate approximate times. |
| Macedonian | The Macedonian word "час" (chas) also means "time" and is related to the Proto-Slavic word "часъ" (chasъ), meaning "a period of time" or "a moment". |
| Malagasy | The Malagasy word "ora" can also mean "time" or "season". |
| Malay | The word "jam" in Malay can also refer to a traffic jam or a musical jam session. |
| Malayalam | 'മണിക്കൂർ' (hour) is a loanword from English. However, it is also associated with the word 'കൂറ്' (share or division), suggesting a historical interpretation as a 'part of the day'. |
| Maltese | The Maltese word "siegħa" ultimately derives from the Latin word "hora", which originally referred to a period of time equal to one-twelfth of a day or night. |
| Maori | The word "haora" in Maori can also refer to a specific time of day, such as "te haora tuatahi" (the first hour of the morning). |
| Marathi | The Marathi word "तास" ("hour") is derived from the Sanskrit word "तस्कर" ("thief"), which originally referred to the measurement of time by the amount of water that drips from a pot in an hour while it is being stolen. |
| Mongolian | "Цаг" also means "time" but can have connotations of a specific occasion or era. |
| Myanmar (Burmese) | Some scholars believe the original word for “hour,” နာရီ [nà rí], may derive from a Proto-Austronesian word for “sunlight.” |
| Nepali | The word "घण्टा" is derived from Sanskrit and originally meant "bell" or "gong", which was used to mark time. |
| Norwegian | The word "time" in Norwegian is derived from the Old Norse word "tími", which meant "hour" or "fixed time". |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | "Ola" in Nyanja also denotes a period of time marked by an event, e.g. "ola la dzuwa" (sunrise). |
| Pashto | The word “saat” comes from the same root as the word “sol” which means sun (in the context of the hours of daylight). |
| Persian | The Persian word "ساعت" (hour) derives from the Arabic word "ساعة" (watch) and ultimately from the Coptic word "Ϥωωϥ" (time). |
| Polish | The Polish word "godzina" may derive from an Old Czech word meaning "good time" or "a good moment to do something." |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | In Portuguese, "hora" also means the time of day that mass is celebrated. |
| Punjabi | In addition to meaning "hour", "ਘੰਟਾ" can also refer to an hourglass-shaped bell used for worship or as an alarm. |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "oră" is derived from the Slavic "ora", meaning "time" or "moment", and is not related to the Latin "hora", meaning "dance" or "gathering". |
| Russian | Час derived from PIE root *k'es- and is related to words meaning "portion of time" in many Indo-European languages, like Latin hora, Greek hora, and Sanskrit kṣaṇa. |
| Samoan | The term `itula` was initially a noun signifying `day`, which eventually came to represent a temporal measure, namely `hour`. |
| Scots Gaelic | The Gaelic word 'uair' also has alternative meanings in Scottish Gaelic like time or weather. |
| Serbian | The root "-сат" in "сат" is shared by "час" (hour) and has etymological ties to Greek "kairos" (opportune moment) via Old-Church-Slavonic "kasaa" (timely). |
| Sesotho | Hora is used as a measure of time, but can also mean "a time, a while, a moment, or a period of time." |
| Shona | "Awa" also means "time" and hence it can be pluralized and used in sentences like "awawa ese mazuva manomwe" (a week) |
| Sindhi | The word "ڪلاڪ" (hour) is also used to refer to a clock. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word "පැය" (hour) in Sinhala is derived from the Sanskrit word "प्रहर" (prahara), meaning "watch" or "period of time". |
| Slovak | The word "hodinu" also means "bell" in Slovak, a sense present in English "clock," which originally meant "bell" but now refers to a timekeeping device. |
| Slovenian | The word "uro" is derived from the Latin "hora" through Proto-Slavic, and means "time" in Old Church Slavonic |
| Somali | In some dialects of Somali, the word "saac" can also refer to a "moment" or a "short period of time." |
| Spanish | In Spanish, the word "hora" not only refers to a unit of time, but also to a specific time of day, a type of dance, or a particular moment in history. |
| Sundanese | The Sundanese word "jam" can also refer to the period from dusk to dawn. |
| Swahili | Swahili 'saa' also relates to 'time' generally, as well as 'period of the day', or even 'weather conditions'. |
| Swedish | The word "timme" originates from the Latin "tempus" meaning "time". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "oras" is also used to mean "weather" and originally meant "time" in Malay. |
| Tajik | The word "соат" in Tajik is derived from the Persian word "saat" which means "time" or "period". |
| Tamil | The Tamil word "மணி" (hour) derives from the Sanskrit word "मुहूर्त" (muhūrta) through a Dravidian adaptation. |
| Telugu | In Telugu, the word "గంట" not only denotes the time interval of an hour, but also refers to a bell-shaped musical instrument or a type of water vessel. |
| Thai | The Thai word "ชั่วโมง" likely originates from the Sanskrit word "ghoraka", which refers to the time it takes to empty a water clock. |
| Turkish | "Saat" can also mean "time" or a device that measures time. |
| Ukrainian | The word "год" in Ukrainian etymologically relates to the concept of "year" and shares a root with words like "година" (year) and "годиться" (to be suitable, to be in time). |
| Urdu | "گھنٹے" is also used to refer to a "bell" or a "clock" in Urdu. |
| Uzbek | The word "soat" can also mean "time" or "occasion" in Uzbek. |
| Vietnamese | Giờ translates to "hour" and has the alternate meanings of "time", "period", and "turn" in Vietnamese. |
| Welsh | The Welsh word "awr" comes from the Latin word "hora" and can also mean "time" or "season". |
| Xhosa | The word 'yure' has its origins in the Indo-European root 'yu-ro', meaning 'yearly'. |
| Yiddish | The etymology of the Hebrew word "sha"ah" and the Yiddish "shee"" both stem from the Akkadian "shustu", meaning "60" and referring to the 60-minute hour. |
| Yoruba | The Yoruba word "wakati" can also mean "period" or "season". |
| Zulu | The Zulu word 'ihora' is derived from the Proto-Bantu word *-hla, meaning 'to shine' or 'to be bright' |
| English | The word "hour" comes from the Latin "hora", which also meant "season" or "time of day." |