Read in Different Languages
Discover 'Read' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Read
Afrikaans lees | ||
Albanian lexoj | ||
Amharic አንብብ | ||
Arabic اقرأ | ||
Armenian կարդալ | ||
Assamese পঢ়া | ||
Aymara ullaña | ||
Azerbaijani oxuyun | ||
Bambara ka kalan | ||
Basque irakurri | ||
Belarusian чытаць | ||
Bengali পড়া | ||
Bhojpuri पढ़ल | ||
Bosnian čitaj | ||
Bulgarian прочети | ||
Catalan llegir | ||
Cebuano basaha | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 读 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 讀 | ||
Corsican leghje | ||
Croatian čitati | ||
Czech číst | ||
Danish læs | ||
Dhivehi ކިޔުން | ||
Dogri पढ़ो | ||
Dutch lezen | ||
English read | ||
Esperanto legi | ||
Estonian lugeda | ||
Ewe xlẽ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) basahin | ||
Finnish lukea | ||
French lis | ||
Frisian lêze | ||
Galician ler | ||
Georgian წაიკითხა | ||
German lesen | ||
Greek ανάγνωση | ||
Guarani lee | ||
Gujarati વાંચવું | ||
Haitian Creole li | ||
Hausa karanta | ||
Hawaiian heluhelu | ||
Hebrew לקרוא | ||
Hindi पढ़ना | ||
Hmong nyeem | ||
Hungarian olvas | ||
Icelandic lesa | ||
Igbo gụọ | ||
Ilocano basaen | ||
Indonesian baca | ||
Irish léigh | ||
Italian leggere | ||
Japanese 読んだ | ||
Javanese maca | ||
Kannada ಓದಿ | ||
Kazakh оқыңыз | ||
Khmer អាន | ||
Kinyarwanda soma | ||
Konkani वाचप | ||
Korean 읽다 | ||
Krio rid | ||
Kurdish xwendin | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) خوێندنەوە | ||
Kyrgyz окуу | ||
Lao ອ່ານ | ||
Latin legere | ||
Latvian lasīt | ||
Lingala kotanga | ||
Lithuanian skaityti | ||
Luganda okusoma | ||
Luxembourgish liesen | ||
Macedonian прочитај | ||
Maithili पढ़ू | ||
Malagasy vakio ny | ||
Malay membaca | ||
Malayalam വായിക്കുക | ||
Maltese aqra | ||
Maori panuihia | ||
Marathi वाचा | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯄꯥꯕ | ||
Mizo chhiar | ||
Mongolian унших | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ဖတ်ပါ | ||
Nepali पढ्नुहोस् | ||
Norwegian lese | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) werengani | ||
Odia (Oriya) ପ read ଼ନ୍ତୁ | | ||
Oromo dubbisuu | ||
Pashto ولولئ | ||
Persian خواندن | ||
Polish czytać | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) ler | ||
Punjabi ਪੜ੍ਹੋ | ||
Quechua ñawinchay | ||
Romanian citit | ||
Russian читать | ||
Samoan faitau | ||
Sanskrit पठतु | ||
Scots Gaelic leugh | ||
Sepedi bala | ||
Serbian читати | ||
Sesotho bala | ||
Shona verenga | ||
Sindhi پڙهو | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) කියවන්න | ||
Slovak čítať | ||
Slovenian preberite | ||
Somali aqri | ||
Spanish leer | ||
Sundanese maca | ||
Swahili soma | ||
Swedish läsa | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) basahin | ||
Tajik хонед | ||
Tamil படி | ||
Tatar укыгыз | ||
Telugu చదవండి | ||
Thai อ่าน | ||
Tigrinya ኣንብብ | ||
Tsonga hlaya | ||
Turkish okumak | ||
Turkmen oka | ||
Twi (Akan) kan | ||
Ukrainian читати | ||
Urdu پڑھیں | ||
Uyghur ئوقۇش | ||
Uzbek o'qing | ||
Vietnamese đọc | ||
Welsh darllen | ||
Xhosa funda | ||
Yiddish לייענען | ||
Yoruba ka | ||
Zulu funda |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "lees" in Afrikaans can also refer to a yeast precipitate in wine or beer. |
| Albanian | The word "lexoj" (read) in Albanian derives from the Latin "lego, legere," and also means "to gather" or "to collect" in Old Albanian. |
| Amharic | The word 'አንብብ' in Amharic also means 'to study' or 'to recite'. |
| Arabic | The word "اقرأ" ("read") in Arabic is also used to mean "recite" or "chant", especially in a religious context. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word "կարդալ" is etymologically related to the Persian word "کردن" (kardan, "to do"), and in some contexts, it can also mean "to perform" or "to work". |
| Azerbaijani | The word "oxuyun" may also refer to "studying" or "learning" in Azerbaijani. |
| Basque | The noun "irakurri" is a substantivized past participle of the verb "irakurri" "to read" and is rarely used in any context other than "irakurketa" "reading". |
| Belarusian | "Чытаць" derives from an Old East Slavic word meaning "to speak" or "to recite". |
| Bengali | The word "পড়া" (read) also means "to fall down" in Bengali, which is why the word "পড়াশোনা" (studies) literally means "falling down of knowledge." |
| Bosnian | The verb "čitaj" in Bosnian is ultimately derived from the Proto-Slavic verb "*čitati", meaning "to understand, to interpret". |
| Bulgarian | The Bulgarian word "Прочети" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*čьtъ", which originally meant "to understand" or "to count". |
| Catalan | In Aranese Catalan, lle(g)ir also means to ‘suckle’ |
| Cebuano | "Basaha" can also refer to a type of traditional Filipino dance accompanied by chanting or singing. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 读 can mean to study, to recite aloud, or to comprehend, and is most often used in reference to literature. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The Han character 讀 is a semantic-phonetic compound, consisting of a phonetic component 音 and a semantic component 首 meaning 'head' |
| Corsican | The word "leghje" derives from the Vulgar Latin "*legere," the past participle of "legō," with the same meaning. |
| Croatian | The verb "čitati" also means to "spell" or "recite" in Croatian. |
| Czech | The verb "číst" is also used in the meaning "to clean". In old Czech, it also meant "to collect". |
| Danish | In Norwegian, 'les' also means to 'gather'. |
| Dutch | The Dutch "lezen" (read) derives from Proto-Germanic "lisanōn", meaning "gather" or "collect". |
| Esperanto | "Legi" is a word used to describe a type of dance that is popular in Romania. |
| Estonian | The word "lugeda" in Estonian is also used to refer to counting or examining something carefully. |
| Finnish | The word "lukea" also means "to count" or "to guess", perhaps due to its origin in the Old East Finnish "lukku" (notch). |
| French | "Lis" can also mean "lily" in French, which comes from the Latin word "lilium". |
| Frisian | The word "lêze" in Frisian can also mean "study" or "learn". |
| Galician | In Galician, the word "ler" not only means "to read" but also "to plough" or "to till" the land. |
| Georgian | The word "წაიკითხა" can mean "to say" or "to recite" in Georgian. In the context of reading aloud from a book, it would be translated as "to read". |
| German | From Middle High German 'lesen', 'to gather', probably related to 'lese' 'stack of hay'. |
| Greek | The Greek word "ανάγνωση" can also refer to interpretation, particularly in regards to religious texts and visions. |
| Haitian Creole | The Haitian Creole word "li" also means "to look at" or "to examine". |
| Hausa | In ancient times, “karanta” could also mean “to be pregnant”. |
| Hawaiian | In Hawaiian, the word 'heluhelu' not only means 'read,' but also signifies the act of surfing or paddling. |
| Hebrew | The Hebrew verb "קרא" (read) also means "to call" or "to invite", reflecting its original meaning of "to proclaim" or "to announce" |
| Hindi | पढ़ना (read), derives from the Sanskrit √पृच्छ् 'to ask', thus implying 'questioning the text'. Also the verb to 'study'. |
| Hmong | In the Hmong language, "nyeem" means both "to read" and refers to a specific "book", depending on its tonal contour. |
| Hungarian | The etymology of the Hungarian word "olvas" is uncertain, with possible connections to the Ugrian languages or the Turkic languages. |
| Icelandic | The word "lesa" can have several meanings apart from "read", such as "gather","collect" and "grasp". |
| Igbo | Igbo speakers sometimes use "gụọ" in the context of "to search or investigate," as well as in its literal sense of "to read." |
| Indonesian | Baca, also means 'to sow or plant' in archaic Javanese Malay and is likely an Austroasiatic loanword. |
| Irish | The Irish word |
| Italian | The word 'leggere' in Italian ultimately derives from the Latin verb 'legere', meaning both 'to read' and 'to gather', suggesting its historical connection to reading as a collective activity. |
| Japanese | 読んだ means "to read" in Japanese, but it can also mean "to learn" or "to understand." |
| Javanese | In modern Javanese, "maca" also means "to see", especially on a screen. |
| Kannada | "ಓದಿ" in Kannada can also refer to a ceremony or ritual. |
| Kazakh | The Kazakh word "оқыңыз" can also mean "to study" or "to learn". |
| Khmer | The verb អាន has several meanings, such as to "understand," "interpret" or "see". |
| Korean | In the Jeju dialect, the word "읽다" can also mean "write." |
| Kurdish | The Kurdish word 'xwendin' has alternative meanings such as 'to understand' and 'to interpret'. |
| Kyrgyz | The word "окуу" derives from the root "- оку" which also means "to comprehend". |
| Lao | The word "ອ່ານ" in Lao has multiple meanings, including "to look at", "to study", and "to examine". |
| Latin | The Latin verb legere also means to 'pick up,' 'collect,' and 'gather.' |
| Latvian | The verb "lasīt" also means "to collect" or "to gather", similar to its cognates in the other Baltic languages like Lithuanian "lesti". |
| Lithuanian | "Skaityti" literally means "to count" in Lithuanian, reflecting the historical importance of reading as a means of acquiring knowledge. |
| Luxembourgish | The word "liesen" can also mean "to pick up" or "to gather" in Luxembourgish. |
| Macedonian | The verb "прочитај" is derived from the Proto-Slavic verb *čitati, which also means "to count" or "to gather". |
| Malagasy | The word "vakio ny" in Malagasy also means "to study" or "to learn." |
| Malay | The term "membaca" is derived from the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian root "*baca" meaning "to recite, spell". This root is shared by numerous other languages in the Malayo-Polynesian family. |
| Malayalam | വായിക്കുക originally meant 'to utter' or 'to speak out loud', and still has this meaning in certain contexts. |
| Maltese | The word "aqra" can also mean "to search" or "to examine" in Maltese. |
| Maori | Panuihia can also mean to "make known" or "announce". |
| Marathi | The word "वाचा" also means "speech" or "voice" in Marathi. |
| Mongolian | The word "унших" can also mean "to study" or "to learn" in Mongolian. |
| Nepali | The Nepali word "पढ्नुहोस्" is derived from the Sanskrit root "पठ्" (p̣ath), which means "to go, to move". This suggests that reading was originally conceived as a journey of the mind through text. |
| Norwegian | "Lese" is connected to "lyd", which means sound, hence, "lese" in Norwegian means "to read aloud" or "to listen. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word werengani also means 'to count' or 'to consider' in Nyanja (Chichewa). |
| Pashto | The Pashto word “ولولئ” also means “to spin”. |
| Persian | The word خواندن (read) can also mean asking, begging, or reciting. |
| Polish | "Czytać" means both "to read" and "to recite" in Polish, due to the historical use of reading aloud and recitation.} |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The verb "ler" in Portuguese derives from the Latin "legere", meaning "to gather, to collect". |
| Punjabi | The word 'ਪੜ੍ਹੋ' ('read') in Punjabi is derived from the Sanskrit word 'पठ्' ('path'), meaning 'to read, to recite, or to study' |
| Romanian | The verb 'citi' also has a second, more formal use, which is 'to inform' and is used mostly by the Church. |
| Russian | The Russian verb "читать" is derived from the Old Church Slavonic word "čьtati", originally meaning "to calculate" or "to count." |
| Samoan | The Samoan word "faitau" also means "to compose" or "to write". |
| Scots Gaelic | The Scots Gaelic word 'leugh' can also mean 'lecture' or 'lesson'. |
| Serbian | "Читати" also means to "count" in Serbo-Croatian. |
| Sesotho | The word 'bala' also means 'to perceive' |
| Shona | In some contexts, the Shona word "verenga" can refer to the act of gathering information beyond reading, such as by observation or rumor. |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The Sinhalese word "කියවන්න" comes from the Proto-Dravidian root *kīl- "to say" and is also used to mean "to speak". |
| Slovak | The word "čítať" also means "spell" or "cast a spell" in Old Church Slavonic. |
| Slovenian | The word 'prebrati' also means 'to read aloud' or 'to recite' in Slovenian. |
| Somali | The word "aqri" in Somali can also mean "to learn" or "to study" |
| Spanish | In Spanish, the word "leer" also means to "skim" or "scan" a text. |
| Sundanese | The word "maca" can also mean "get" or "take" in the context of books or knowledge. |
| Swahili | "Soma" also means "to study" and originates from the Arabic word "sahama" meaning "to share". |
| Swedish | "Läsa", meaning "read" in Swedish, can also mean to "study" or to "understand". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The word ``basahin`` is also used to describe the process of wetting or soaking something as in ``basain mo ang pinggan`` (``wet the plate``). |
| Tajik | The word "хонед" in Tajik can also mean "to learn" or "to study". |
| Tamil | The Tamil word "படி" (padi) also means "step" or "ladder," reflecting the concept of reading as a gradual process of ascent. |
| Telugu | చదవండి also refers to a Telugu word game commonly played with playing cards; it is similar to the card game 'Crazy Eights'. |
| Thai | The Thai word "อ่าน" (read) derives from the Khmer word "អាន" (aan) and the Sanskrit word "अधीत" (adhīta). |
| Turkish | The Turkish word "okumak" also refers to "studying" in the sense of learning a topic in-depth. |
| Ukrainian | "Читання" - це процес сприйняття й розуміння тексту; "читати" - "говорити про себе", "розмовляти" (інші значення слова) |
| Urdu | The Urdu word "پڑھیں" originated from the Prakrit and Sanskrit verb "पढ़िति" (paḍhiti), meaning "to learn" or "to study". |
| Uzbek | The word "o'qing" in Uzbek is related to the Mongolian word for "to read", "өгүүлэх." |
| Vietnamese | "Đọc" also means "to measure", likely from the Mon-Khmer word "dok". |
| Welsh | 'Darllen' also means 'to perceive' or 'to understand' in older Welsh. |
| Xhosa | In Xhosa, 'funda' can also mean 'to be on the brink of giving birth' or 'to be on the point of doing something'. |
| Yiddish | לייענען's Yiddish meaning of "support" likely comes from medieval "lehnen" and Latin "clinare" and has a connection to the German "lehnen" meaning "borrow." |
| Yoruba | The word "ka" in Yoruba can also mean "to examine" or "to study". |
| Zulu | Funda's alternate meaning in Zulu is "to study or to learn". |
| English | The word "read" comes from the Old English word "rædan," which means "to interpret" or "to give advice." |