Or in Different Languages
Discover 'Or' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Or
Afrikaans of | ||
Albanian ose | ||
Amharic ወይም | ||
Arabic أو | ||
Armenian կամ | ||
Assamese অথবা | ||
Aymara o | ||
Azerbaijani və ya | ||
Bambara walima | ||
Basque edo | ||
Belarusian альбо | ||
Bengali বা | ||
Bhojpuri अऊर | ||
Bosnian ili | ||
Bulgarian или | ||
Catalan o bé | ||
Cebuano o | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 要么 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 要么 | ||
Corsican o | ||
Croatian ili | ||
Czech nebo | ||
Danish eller | ||
Dhivehi ނުވަތަ | ||
Dogri जां | ||
Dutch of | ||
English or | ||
Esperanto aŭ | ||
Estonian või | ||
Ewe alo | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) o | ||
Finnish tai | ||
French ou | ||
Frisian of | ||
Galician ou | ||
Georgian ან | ||
German oder | ||
Greek ή | ||
Guarani térã | ||
Gujarati અથવા | ||
Haitian Creole oswa | ||
Hausa ko | ||
Hawaiian a i ʻole | ||
Hebrew אוֹ | ||
Hindi या | ||
Hmong lossis | ||
Hungarian vagy | ||
Icelandic eða | ||
Igbo ma ọ bụ | ||
Ilocano wenno | ||
Indonesian atau | ||
Irish nó | ||
Italian o | ||
Japanese または | ||
Javanese utawa | ||
Kannada ಅಥವಾ | ||
Kazakh немесе | ||
Khmer ឬ | ||
Kinyarwanda cyangwa | ||
Konkani वा | ||
Korean 또는 | ||
Krio ɔ | ||
Kurdish an | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) یان | ||
Kyrgyz же | ||
Lao ຫຼື | ||
Latin uel | ||
Latvian vai | ||
Lingala to | ||
Lithuanian arba | ||
Luganda oba | ||
Luxembourgish oder | ||
Macedonian или | ||
Maithili वा | ||
Malagasy na | ||
Malay atau | ||
Malayalam അഥവാ | ||
Maltese jew | ||
Maori ranei | ||
Marathi किंवा | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯅꯠꯇ꯭ꯔꯒ | ||
Mizo emaw | ||
Mongolian эсвэл | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) သို့မဟုတ် | ||
Nepali वा | ||
Norwegian eller | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) kapena | ||
Odia (Oriya) କିମ୍ବା | ||
Oromo yookaan | ||
Pashto یا | ||
Persian یا | ||
Polish lub | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) ou | ||
Punjabi ਜਾਂ | ||
Quechua utaq | ||
Romanian sau | ||
Russian или же | ||
Samoan pe | ||
Sanskrit वा | ||
Scots Gaelic no | ||
Sepedi goba | ||
Serbian или | ||
Sesotho kapa | ||
Shona kana | ||
Sindhi يا | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) හෝ | ||
Slovak alebo | ||
Slovenian ali | ||
Somali ama | ||
Spanish o | ||
Sundanese atawa | ||
Swahili au | ||
Swedish eller | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) o | ||
Tajik ё | ||
Tamil அல்லது | ||
Tatar яки | ||
Telugu లేదా | ||
Thai หรือ | ||
Tigrinya ወይ | ||
Tsonga kumbe | ||
Turkish veya | ||
Turkmen ýa-da | ||
Twi (Akan) anaasɛ | ||
Ukrainian або | ||
Urdu یا | ||
Uyghur ياكى | ||
Uzbek yoki | ||
Vietnamese hoặc là | ||
Welsh neu | ||
Xhosa okanye | ||
Yiddish אָדער | ||
Yoruba tabi | ||
Zulu noma |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | In Afrikaans, "of" can also mean "from" or "out of". |
| Albanian | The word "ose" in Albanian can also mean "maybe" or "perhaps." |
| Amharic | The word "ወይም" can also mean "either" or "else". |
| Arabic | The word "أو" ("or") in Arabic can also mean "either". It is commonly used in the context of exclusive alternatives. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word "կամ" can also mean "either" or "whether" in English. |
| Azerbaijani | The word "və ya" in Azerbaijani is derived from the Persian word "va yā" and can also mean "either" or "whether". |
| Basque | The word "edo" in Basque can also mean "again" or "even" in some contexts. |
| Belarusian | АЛЬБО (“or”) in Belarusian also means “either” in English. |
| Bengali | The word 'বা' also means 'except' in Bengali. |
| Bosnian | In Bosnian, "ili" can also refer to an alternative option or a choice between two or more possibilities, similar to English "either". |
| Bulgarian | The word "или" also means "either" in Bulgarian, similar to its use in Russian. |
| Catalan | The word "o bé" in Catalan is a conjunction used to connect two or more alternatives, similar to the English word "or". |
| Cebuano | In some Philippine languages, 'o' or 'u' also mean 'who'. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 要么, a commonly used conjunction, originally meant "if" or "when." |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 要么 "or" in Chinese (Traditional) refers to the two extremes of a spectrum, where the choice between either option is unavoidable. |
| Corsican | "O" in Corsican is related to Latin and Old Italian "aut", which gave "aut" in Occitan, but also "o" and "ou" in French. |
| Croatian | The word "ili" is also used to express a choice between two or more alternatives and can be translated as "either" or "any". |
| Czech | In Old Church Slavonic, nebo translates as "heaven" but can also refer to "sky". |
| Danish | "Eller" has several meanings in Danish, including "or", "else", "otherwise", and "either". |
| Dutch | The Dutch word "of" can also mean "off" or "from". |
| Esperanto | The Esperanto word "aŭ" is also a contraction of "aŭtune" meaning "in autumn" and the archaic "aŭdienco" meaning "an audience". |
| Estonian | The word "või" in Estonian, meaning "or," also means "butter" and is related to the Finnish word "voi," meaning "fat" or "tallow." |
| Finnish | The word "tai" is closely related to the Finnish possessive suffix "ta". |
| French | "Ou" in French can mean "or" or "where," originating from the Latin "aut" and "ubi," respectively. |
| Frisian | In Frisian, "of" can also mean "off" or "from", indicating separation or origin. |
| Galician | In Galician, "ou" also means "where" and is thus related to the Latin "ubi" |
| Georgian | The word "ან" (or) in Georgian can also mean "otherwise" or "rather". |
| German | The word "oder" can also refer to a river in Central Europe that flows into the North Sea. |
| Greek | Derived from PIE *h₂e-, *h₂w-, ultimately from Proto-Semitic *’*w, ultimately from Afro-Asiatic Proto-West-Semitic *’*w. |
| Gujarati | The Gujarati word "અથવા" can also be used to mean "alternatively" or "similarly". |
| Haitian Creole | Oswa, meaning 'or' in Haitian Creole, originates from Old French 'ous,' which comes from the Latin word 'aut.' |
| Hausa | The word "ko" in Hausa can also mean "but" or "however". |
| Hawaiian | In Hawaiian, "a i ʻole" can also mean "whether" or "if not". |
| Hebrew | אוֹ can also be used as a relative pronoun, similar to "who" or "that" in English. |
| Hindi | The word "या" ("or") in Hindi can also mean "by which" or "because". |
| Hmong | The Hmong word "lossis" can also be used to mean "but" or "except". |
| Hungarian | The word "vagy" in Hungarian can also refer to "either" in English. |
| Icelandic | Eða, the Icelandic word for "or," derives from the Old Norse word "eða," meaning "or else" or "otherwise." |
| Indonesian | "Atau" in Indonesian is also a Malay plant and is related to the word for "sugar". Malay was the lingua franca of the Indonesian archipelago. |
| Irish | The Irish word "nó" also means "then". |
| Italian | The Italian word "o" can also be used to mean "either... or..." |
| Japanese | The term または (matawa) derives from the classical Japanese phrase まだしもは (ma-shi-shi-mo-ha), which translates to "even if, moreover," and also serves as a form of emphasis. |
| Javanese | In Old Javanese, "utawa" could also mean "unless" or "besides." |
| Kannada | ಅಥವಾ (athova) is a compound word made up of ಅತ್+ ಹವಾ (at + hava) meaning "in that case" or "otherwise." |
| Kazakh | The word "немесе" also means "but" in Kazakh. |
| Khmer | The Khmer word "ឬ" ("or") is also used to convey "or else", "whether", or "either". |
| Korean | "또는" evolved from "또른" which itself derived from "또리" which originated from "아니라" (to negate something). Therefore its original meaning was "other than." |
| Kurdish | In Kurdish, "an" can also mean "if" or "whether". |
| Kyrgyz | The word "же" in Kyrgyz can also mean "however" or "but". |
| Lao | The word ຫຼື also serves as an interjection to attract attention, or an expletive added to a sentence without altering its meaning. |
| Latin | The Latin "uel" derives from "vel", which in turn comes from the conjunction "aut", but can also be used with the disjunctive meaning "either/or" |
| Latvian | The word "vai" is used both as a conjunction and as an interjection and has meanings such as ``ah,'' ``oh,'' ``well,'' and ``come on,''. |
| Lithuanian | Arba is also used for a variety of other purposes such as "but","as","for","and","when", and "either-or". |
| Luxembourgish | In Luxembourgish, "oder" can also mean "but" or "although". |
| Macedonian | The word "или" in Macedonian can also mean "else" or "otherwise". |
| Malagasy | Malagasy "na" also means "the" as in English "the man" or "the house". |
| Malay | "Atau" (Malay for "or") derives from Old Malay "ataw", which also means "except". |
| Malayalam | "അഥവാ" also means "namely" or "that is to say" |
| Maltese | The etymology of "jew" in Maltese, meaning "or", is uncertain, with theories suggesting a Semitic or Arabic origin. |
| Maori | Ranei has two distinct interpretations, depending on whether a phrase includes another term such as |
| Marathi | The word "किंवा" (kinvā) is derived from the Sanskrit word "किं" (kim), which means "what" or "which". |
| Mongolian | The Mongolian word "эсвэл" can also mean "except" or "but". |
| Nepali | The word 'वा' in Sanskrit and Nepali can also mean 'by' or 'in' and is derived from the Indo-European root *we-. |
| Norwegian | In Norwegian "eller" can also mean "alder" (alder) or "elvetre" (alder tree). |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "kapena" can also mean "but" or "however" in Nyanja (Chichewa). |
| Pashto | "یا" also represents the letter “h" when a word comes from Arabic. |
| Persian | The Persian word "یا" (or) can also mean "an exclamation of surprise or wonder". |
| Polish | In Polish, the word "lub" is also used as a conjunction for linking two nouns or adjectives of equal importance, similar to the English word "and". |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | In ancient Portuguese and Galician 'ou' meant 'and' and 'or' was expressed with 'e' |
| Punjabi | The word "ਜਾਂ" in Punjabi is also a verb meaning "to go" or "to come". |
| Romanian | The word "sau" can also be used as a preposition meaning "except for" or "without" |
| Russian | The word "или же" also means "the same as" or "instead of". |
| Samoan | The Samoan word 'pe' can also be used to indicate possession, meaning 'of' or 'belonging to'. |
| Scots Gaelic | The Scots Gaelic word "no" can also mean "and", "than", or "but" depending on context. |
| Serbian | In Serbian, the word "или" ("or") also refers to the alternative state of being between life and death. |
| Sesotho | The word "kapa" has also been interpreted to mean "for example". |
| Shona | The word "kana" can also mean "or else" |
| Sindhi | "يا" also means "by" in Sindhi, used when specifying the agent of a verb. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | Sinhala 'හෝ' (hō) derives from a combination of Sanskrit 'वा' (vā) meaning 'alternative' and 'अथवा' (athvā) meaning 'or'. |
| Slovak | In Old Slovak, "alebo" was an indefinite pronoun meaning "someone" or "something". |
| Slovenian | The word "ali" in Slovenian can also mean "but" or "however". |
| Somali | In Somali, "ama" can also mean "either" or "whether" |
| Spanish | In some regions of Spain, "o" can also mean "where" or "to". |
| Sundanese | The word atawa is also an abbreviation of the Sundanese phrase "atawa sanésna" (or in Indonesian, "atau senada") which means "or the likes thereof." |
| Swahili | Swahili "au" derives from Proto-Bantu "-yò", |
| Swedish | The Swedish word “eller” can also mean “Alder (tree)”, “or (branch)”, and “or (river)”, all of which have their roots in Old Norse. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | Tagalog word "o" is a cognate of Malay "atau", meaning "either". In Ilokano, it can mean "if", while in Cebuano, it can mean "or" or "when". |
| Tajik | In Tajik, 'ё' is also a separate vowel letter with an 'o' sound similar to the 'e' in the English word 'her'. |
| Tamil | "அல்லது" can also mean "not" or "do not" in Tamil. |
| Telugu | The word "లేదా" can also mean "except" or "if not". |
| Thai | The Thai word "หรือ" (or) can also be used to mean "is it possible that" or "I wonder if" |
| Turkish | "Veya" originates from the Persian conjunction "va" meaning "and". It's also an archaic Turkish word meaning "place, area, district". |
| Ukrainian | The word "або" can also be used in Ukrainian as a conjunction meaning "either". |
| Urdu | In Urdu, the word "یا" can also mean "or else", implying a warning or threat. |
| Uzbek | The Uzbek word "yoki" can also mean "either," and can be used in both disjunctive and inclusive senses. |
| Vietnamese | The Vietnamese word "hoặc là" can also mean "either" or "if not" in certain contexts, expanding its range of usage. |
| Welsh | In some contexts, 'neu' means 'whereas' and in others, it means 'if', 'when' or 'when indeed'. |
| Xhosa | The term 'okanye' derives from the Bantu root '-ka', meaning 'to come', 'to arrive' or 'to exist'. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "אָדער" also means "vein" in German. |
| Yoruba | "Tabi" also means to 'take turns', 'in order', 'sequentially'. |
| Zulu | The word 'noma' can also be used to describe a place where cattle graze and rest. |
| English | The word "or" can also be used as a conjunction to indicate an alternative, as in "coffee or tea". |