Prayer in Different Languages
Discover 'Prayer' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Prayer
Afrikaans gebed | ||
Albanian lutje | ||
Amharic ጸሎት | ||
Arabic دعاء | ||
Armenian աղոթք | ||
Assamese প্ৰাৰ্থনা | ||
Aymara mayisiña | ||
Azerbaijani namaz | ||
Bambara delili kɛ | ||
Basque otoitza | ||
Belarusian малітва | ||
Bengali প্রার্থনা | ||
Bhojpuri प्रार्थना कइल जाला | ||
Bosnian molitva | ||
Bulgarian молитва | ||
Catalan oració | ||
Cebuano pag-ampo | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 祷告 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 禱告 | ||
Corsican preghera | ||
Croatian molitva | ||
Czech modlitba | ||
Danish bøn | ||
Dhivehi ނަމާދެވެ | ||
Dogri दुआ | ||
Dutch gebed | ||
English prayer | ||
Esperanto preĝo | ||
Estonian palve | ||
Ewe gbedodoɖa | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) panalangin | ||
Finnish rukous | ||
French prière | ||
Frisian bea | ||
Galician oración | ||
Georgian ლოცვა | ||
German gebet | ||
Greek προσευχή | ||
Guarani ñembo’e | ||
Gujarati પ્રાર્થના | ||
Haitian Creole lapriyè | ||
Hausa addu'a | ||
Hawaiian pule | ||
Hebrew תְפִלָה | ||
Hindi प्रार्थना | ||
Hmong kev thov vajtswv | ||
Hungarian ima | ||
Icelandic bæn | ||
Igbo ekpere | ||
Ilocano kararag | ||
Indonesian doa | ||
Irish paidir | ||
Italian preghiera | ||
Japanese 祈り | ||
Javanese pandonga | ||
Kannada ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ | ||
Kazakh дұға | ||
Khmer ការអធិស្ឋាន | ||
Kinyarwanda gusenga | ||
Konkani प्रार्थना करतात | ||
Korean 기도 | ||
Krio prea we yu de pre | ||
Kurdish dûa | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) نوێژ | ||
Kyrgyz тиленүү | ||
Lao ການອະທິຖານ | ||
Latin orationis | ||
Latvian lūgšana | ||
Lingala losambo | ||
Lithuanian malda | ||
Luganda okusaba | ||
Luxembourgish gebiet | ||
Macedonian молитва | ||
Maithili प्रार्थना | ||
Malagasy vavaka | ||
Malay solat | ||
Malayalam പ്രാർത്ഥന | ||
Maltese talb | ||
Maori karakia | ||
Marathi प्रार्थना | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯄ꯭ꯔꯥꯔꯊꯅꯥ ꯇꯧꯕꯥ꯫ | ||
Mizo tawngtai a ni | ||
Mongolian залбирал | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ဆုတောင်းပဌနာ | ||
Nepali प्रार्थना | ||
Norwegian bønn | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) pemphero | ||
Odia (Oriya) ପ୍ରାର୍ଥନା | ||
Oromo kadhannaa | ||
Pashto لمونځ | ||
Persian دعا | ||
Polish modlitwa | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) oração | ||
Punjabi ਪ੍ਰਾਰਥਨਾ | ||
Quechua mañakuy | ||
Romanian rugăciune | ||
Russian молитва | ||
Samoan tatalo | ||
Sanskrit प्रार्थना | ||
Scots Gaelic ùrnaigh | ||
Sepedi thapelo | ||
Serbian молитва | ||
Sesotho thapelo | ||
Shona munamato | ||
Sindhi دعا | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) යාච්ඤාව | ||
Slovak modlitba | ||
Slovenian molitev | ||
Somali salaadda | ||
Spanish oración | ||
Sundanese solat | ||
Swahili sala | ||
Swedish bön | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) pagdarasal | ||
Tajik дуо | ||
Tamil பிரார்த்தனை | ||
Tatar дога | ||
Telugu ప్రార్థన | ||
Thai คำอธิษฐาน | ||
Tigrinya ጸሎት | ||
Tsonga xikhongelo | ||
Turkish namaz | ||
Turkmen doga | ||
Twi (Akan) mpaebɔ | ||
Ukrainian молитва | ||
Urdu دعا | ||
Uyghur دۇئا | ||
Uzbek ibodat | ||
Vietnamese người cầu nguyện | ||
Welsh gweddi | ||
Xhosa umthandazo | ||
Yiddish תפילה | ||
Yoruba adura | ||
Zulu umkhuleko |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Gebed is etymologically related to the English word "gibbet" |
| Albanian | The Albanian word "lutje" is derived from the Latin word "laudare," meaning "to praise." |
| Amharic | The word "ጸሎት" (prayer) is derived from the Ge'ez word "ṣalāʾt," which also means "prostration". |
| Arabic | The word "دعاء" (du'a) in Arabic can also refer to "invocation" or "supplication" and shares a root with the verb "to call". |
| Armenian | The Armenian word "աղոթք" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root "*h₂eǵʰ-," meaning "to venerate" or "to address respectfully" the gods. |
| Azerbaijani | The word "namaz" in Azerbaijani is derived from the Persian word "namaz", which in turn comes from the Arabic word "salat", meaning "prayer." |
| Basque | In Basque, the word "otoitza" is related to the word "otoi," meaning "voice", suggesting its origin as a form of verbal communication with a higher power. |
| Belarusian | The Belarusian word 'малітва' ('prayer') comes from the Proto-Slavic word 'molitva', which is related to the Sanskrit word 'marana', meaning 'death' or 'killing'. This suggests that the word 'prayer' may have originally had a more sinister meaning, such as 'pleading for one's life'. |
| Bengali | The word "প্রার্থনা" also means "entreaty" or "request". |
| Bosnian | The verb "moliti se" is semantically equivalent to the English "to pray", but also has the archaic meaning "to entreat" or "to beg". |
| Bulgarian | The Bulgarian word "молитва" (prayer) has many alternate meanings, including "request" "plea" and "supplication". |
| Catalan | The Catalan word "oració" derives from the Latin word "oratio" meaning "speech" or "discourse". |
| Cebuano | "Pag-ampo" also refers to the act of begging, pleading or asking for something earnestly. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 祷告 was originally a sacrificial ritual (告 = announce, 祭 = sacrifice) |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 禱, an ancient form of praying, means chanting a mantra; 告, meaning to tell, suggests an utterance of supplication to a deity, thus 禱告 refers to prayers to the divine. |
| Corsican | The Corsican word "preghera" has the alternate meaning of "request" or "petition". |
| Croatian | The word "molitva" originally meant "request", and is cognate with "molba" (request), "moliti" (to ask for), and "moljak" (supplicant). |
| Czech | Modlitba has also other meanings such as request, demand, petition, suit, supplication, plea, rogation, or invocation. |
| Danish | In Norwegian, "bønn" can also mean "request" or "petition". |
| Dutch | The word "gebed" in Dutch is derived from the Old Dutch word "gebeden" meaning "to ask for something." |
| Esperanto | From the French "prier" and Latin "precari", which also means "to beg". |
| Estonian | The word "palve" in Estonian is thought to be derived from the Indo-European root "pelh-," meaning "to protect" or "to watch over." |
| Finnish | The word "rukous" in Finnish also means "petition" and comes from the Proto-Finnic word "ruokše" meaning "to ask for something." |
| French | The word "prière" derives from the Latin "precaria," meaning "entreaty," and also refers to a legal petition. |
| Frisian | The word "bea" in Frisian can also mean "wish" or "request". |
| Galician | En gallego, oración se puede referir a la petición a una divinidad o a una construcción gramatical con sentido completo. |
| Georgian | In Georgian, the word |
| German | The German word "Gebet" is related to the word "geben" ("to give") and originally referred to an offering, vow or promise to a deity. |
| Greek | The Greek word "προσευχή" (proseuchē) originates from "πρός" (pros) meaning "towards" and "εὔχομαι" (euchomai) meaning "to pray; wish, desire". |
| Gujarati | "Prarthana" is derived from the Sanskrit word "prarthayati," meaning "to ask or request" and has the alternate meaning of "a plea or petition." |
| Haitian Creole | "Lapriyè" comes from the French "la prière" and also refers to a kind of folk song sung in religious services. |
| Hausa | In Hausa, the word "addu'a" can also refer to blessings, supplications, or appeals to God or other deities. |
| Hawaiian | The word "pule" in Hawaiian can also refer to a gathering of people for a religious ceremony or ritual. |
| Hebrew | תְפִלָה (Tefillah) comes from the root פלל (Pallel) meaning 'to judge' |
| Hindi | प्रार्थना originates from the root "प्रार्थ्" meaning "to ask, to request" and "to beseech" and implies a heartfelt appeal for something. |
| Hmong | It is a term of respect towards God or other spirits that are being spoken to or revered in the prayer. |
| Hungarian | Ima is not only a prayer but also a 'spell' in Hungarian. The word comes from a Germanic word meaning 'power' or 'strength'. |
| Icelandic | The word "bæn" also means "petition" or "request" in Icelandic, similar to its Old Norse origin. |
| Igbo | Igbo word "ekpere" also means "request", "supplication" or "petition" in English. |
| Indonesian | "Doa" derives from Sanskrit "dhyana" meaning "contemplation" or "meditation". |
| Irish | Some Irish versions of the Bible still use the spelling "paidir" because of its resemblance to the Latin word "pater" (from Pater Noster, "Our Father"). |
| Italian | The word "preghiera" in Italian also means an entreaty, request, or supplication, from the Latin "precari" (to beg). |
| Japanese | The word "祈り" also connotes "wishes" or "hopes". |
| Javanese | "Pandonga" in Javanese also means a "whisper" or a "confession". |
| Kannada | The Kannada word "ಪ್ರಾರ್ಥನೆ" originates from Sanskrit, ultimately linked to the Proto-Indo-European root *prek-, meaning "ask, question," further connected to the Proto-Dravidian word *peːrkka, meaning "speak, beseech" |
| Kazakh | Дұға can also mean "to pray" or "to ask for something." |
| Korean | "기도" is a Sino-Korean word consisting of the Hanja "祈" (to pray) and "禱" (to beseech), thus reinforcing the sense of earnestly pleading to a deity. |
| Kurdish | In Kurmanji Kurdish, the word "dûa" also means "blessing" or "invocation". |
| Kyrgyz | Etymology: The word "тиленүү" is derived from the Turkic root "til-", meaning "to speak" or "to ask." |
| Latin | Alternatively, "orationis" can mean a "speech" in Latin from its root word "oro" ("to speak" or "pray"). |
| Latvian | The word lūgšana is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *leug-, meaning “to bend, to bow”. |
| Lithuanian | This word may be related to the Sanskrit word "mal" (to bind), and the Old Irish word "mol" (praise). |
| Macedonian | "Молитва" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*molitva", meaning "request" or "entreaty". |
| Malagasy | The word "VAVAKA" (prayer) in Malagasy finds its roots in the Sanskrit language and literally means "to ask or request". |
| Malay | The word "solat" is derived from the Arabic word "salat", which means "connection" or "communication" with God. |
| Malayalam | പ്രാർത്ഥന, which means 'prayer', also refers to a type of folk dance performance in which a devotional song is sung |
| Maltese | "Talb" can also mean a 'request' or a 'quest' in Maltese. |
| Maori | In Maori, `karakia` refers to both incantations to invoke deities and the accompanying rituals or ceremonies. |
| Marathi | The word "प्रार्थना" in Marathi originally meant "request" or "petition" and evolved to signify spiritual supplication. |
| Mongolian | The word "залбирал" has an alternate meaning in Mongolian besides "prayer", which is "wish". |
| Nepali | The word "प्रार्थना" is derived from the Sanskrit root "प्रार्थ" (to ask or request) and is closely related to the English word "petition." |
| Norwegian | The word "bønn" in Norwegian also means "request" or "petition". |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | It is also used to refer to a gift given to a person who has helped you. |
| Pashto | The word "لمونځ" (prayer) in Pashto is derived from the Proto-Indo-Iranian root *mazd-, meaning "to think" or "to worship" |
| Persian | دعا (dua) can be a request made to God or an intercessory prayer on behalf of another person in a broader sense of the term. |
| Polish | The word 'modlitwa' is derived from the Proto-Slavic word 'molitva', meaning 'request' or 'plea'. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | In Portuguese, the word "oração" also means "speech" or "oration", and is derived from the Latin word "oratio", meaning "speech or discourse"} |
| Punjabi | The word "prarthana" comes from the Sanskrit word "prarthayati" meaning "to ask" or "to request". |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "rugăciune" evolved from a Slavic word "rogъ" meaning "to ask" or "to request" and it has synonyms like "plecăciune" (bow) and "cerere" (request). |
| Russian | The word "молитва" derives from the Proto-Slavic "molitva" meaning "request" or "entreaty". |
| Samoan | The Samoan word "tatalo" (prayer) is derived from the Proto-Polynesian root *tatalo*, meaning "to ask, request". |
| Scots Gaelic | The Scots Gaelic word ùrnaigh can also refer to a particular form of metrical hymn or a period of time set aside for religious devotion. |
| Serbian | In Serbian, "молитва" can also mean "appeal" or "entreaty".} |
| Sesotho | Thapelo can also refer to a person who is devout or who prays frequently. |
| Shona | The Shona word for 'prayer' can be a noun - 'munamato', or 'minamato'. The noun 'munamato' can become a verb meaning 'to intercede for someone as an individual' or it can be 'to have a discussion with someone'. |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word "دعا" can also refer to an occasion, request, desire, or need. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word 'යාච්ඤාව' (yācñāva) is derived from the Sanskrit word 'याचना' (yācanā), which means 'begging' or 'requesting'. |
| Slovak | The word 'modlitba' comes from the Old Church Slavonic word 'molitva', which means 'request' or 'supplication'. |
| Slovenian | The word 'molitev' is also used to denote a supplication for grace, especially before a meal, which is known as the 'prayer at table' (molitev pred jedjo) in Slovenian. |
| Somali | "Salaadda" comes from the root word "salaam," meaning "peace," and signifies the connection between prayer and seeking inner tranquility. |
| Spanish | The Spanish word "oración" also refers to a type of sentence (namely an independent clause) in grammar. |
| Sundanese | Sundanese word `solat`, aside from meaning prayer to God, also signifies respect or greetings to people. |
| Swahili | The Swahili word "sala" can also refer to a greeting or a form of respect shown to elders. |
| Swedish | Besides "prayer," "bön" also means "supplication" and "entreaty" in Swedish. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | Pagdarasal comes from the Spanish word rezar, which means to pray. |
| Tajik | From Old Tajik "duov", which may also refer to a type of prayer made by women. |
| Tamil | The Tamil word "பிரார்த்தனை" (prayer) is derived from the Sanskrit word "प्रार्थना" (request), which is ultimately derived from the root "प्र" (to ask). |
| Telugu | The word "ప్రార్థన" (prārthana) is derived from the Sanskrit word "प्रार्थना" (prārthanā), which means "begging, asking, or entreating". |
| Thai | The word "คำอธิษฐาน" can also mean "blessing" or "vow" in certain contexts. |
| Turkish | The word "namaz" is derived from the Persian word "namaz" (itself from the Arabic word "صلاة" (ṣalāh)), and also means "bow" or "prostration" in Turkish. |
| Ukrainian | The word "молитва" in Ukrainian also refers to the genre of religious poetry. |
| Urdu | The word **دعا** derives from an Arabic root meaning "to call", and can also mean "call to arms" or "invitation" in a more general sense. |
| Uzbek | The word "ibodat" in Uzbek is derived from the Arabic word "ibadah" meaning "worship" or "devotion" and can also refer to "religious rituals" or "acts of piety". |
| Vietnamese | In addition to its religious meaning, 'người cầu nguyện' can also refer to someone who begs or pleads. |
| Welsh | Its root 'gwed' also means 'weave' and is cognate with the Latin 'precor', meaning 'ask' or 'beg'. |
| Xhosa | The word umthandazo in Xhosa shares its etymology with the verb ukuthandazela (to pray over something), hinting at the idea of intercession. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "תפילה" can also mean "a song" or "a poem" |
| Yoruba | The term 'adura' may also refer to the physical posture or attitude taken while praying. |
| Zulu | The word "umkhuleko" can also mean "to cry out" or "to call upon". |
| English | The word "prayer" derives from the Latin term "precari," meaning "to beg or entreat," and is related to the French word "prière," meaning "request," and the Spanish word "plegaria," meaning "supplication." |