Afrikaans ernstig | ||
Albanian seriozisht | ||
Amharic በቁም ነገር | ||
Arabic بجدية | ||
Armenian լրջորեն | ||
Assamese গুৰুত্ব সহকাৰে | ||
Aymara qhanpacha | ||
Azerbaijani ciddi | ||
Bambara sɛbɛla | ||
Basque serio | ||
Belarusian сур'ёзна | ||
Bengali গুরুত্ব সহকারে | ||
Bhojpuri गंभीरतापूर्वक | ||
Bosnian ozbiljno | ||
Bulgarian сериозно | ||
Catalan seriosament | ||
Cebuano seryoso | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 认真地 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 認真地 | ||
Corsican in seriu | ||
Croatian ozbiljno | ||
Czech vážně | ||
Danish helt seriøst | ||
Dhivehi ސީރިއަސްކޮށް | ||
Dogri संजीदगी कन्नै | ||
Dutch ernstig | ||
English seriously | ||
Esperanto serioze | ||
Estonian tõsiselt | ||
Ewe veviẽ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) seryoso | ||
Finnish vakavasti | ||
French sérieusement | ||
Frisian serieus | ||
Galician en serio | ||
Georgian სერიოზულად | ||
German ernsthaft | ||
Greek σοβαρά | ||
Guarani añetehápe | ||
Gujarati ગંભીરતાથી | ||
Haitian Creole seryezman | ||
Hausa da gaske | ||
Hawaiian koʻikoʻi | ||
Hebrew ברצינות | ||
Hindi गंभीरता से | ||
Hmong tiag | ||
Hungarian komolyan | ||
Icelandic alvarlega | ||
Igbo kpọrọ ihe | ||
Ilocano serioso | ||
Indonesian serius | ||
Irish dáiríre | ||
Italian sul serio | ||
Japanese 真剣に | ||
Javanese serius | ||
Kannada ಗಂಭೀರವಾಗಿ | ||
Kazakh байыпты | ||
Khmer ធ្ងន់ធ្ងរ | ||
Kinyarwanda bikomeye | ||
Konkani ख-यानीच | ||
Korean 진지하게 | ||
Krio siriɔs | ||
Kurdish bi giranî | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) بە جددی | ||
Kyrgyz олуттуу | ||
Lao ຢ່າງຈິງຈັງ | ||
Latin gravissime | ||
Latvian nopietni | ||
Lingala ya mpasi | ||
Lithuanian rimtai | ||
Luganda okikakasa | ||
Luxembourgish eescht | ||
Macedonian сериозно | ||
Maithili गंभीरता सँ | ||
Malagasy zava-dehibe | ||
Malay serius | ||
Malayalam ഗുരുതരമായി | ||
Maltese bis-serjetà | ||
Maori tino | ||
Marathi गंभीरपणे | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯑꯁꯦꯡꯕꯅꯤ | ||
Mizo tihtakzetin | ||
Mongolian ноцтой | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) အလေးအနက်ထား | ||
Nepali गम्भीरतापूर्वक | ||
Norwegian alvor | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) mozama | ||
Odia (Oriya) ଗମ୍ଭୀରତାର ସହିତ | | ||
Oromo isa dhugumaa | ||
Pashto په جدي ډول | ||
Persian به طور جدی | ||
Polish poważnie | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) a sério | ||
Punjabi ਗੰਭੀਰਤਾ ਨਾਲ | ||
Quechua chiqaqpuni | ||
Romanian serios | ||
Russian шутки в сторону | ||
Samoan matuaʻi | ||
Sanskrit गंभीरतया | ||
Scots Gaelic gu dona | ||
Sepedi ka tiišetšo | ||
Serbian озбиљно | ||
Sesotho ka botebo | ||
Shona zvakakomba | ||
Sindhi سنجيده | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) බරපතල ලෙස | ||
Slovak vážne | ||
Slovenian resno | ||
Somali dhab ah | ||
Spanish seriamente | ||
Sundanese serius | ||
Swahili kwa umakini | ||
Swedish allvarligt | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) seryoso | ||
Tajik ҷиддӣ | ||
Tamil தீவிரமாக | ||
Tatar җитди | ||
Telugu తీవ్రంగా | ||
Thai อย่างจริงจัง | ||
Tigrinya ኣኽቢድካ ዝርአ | ||
Tsonga hakunene | ||
Turkish ciddi anlamda | ||
Turkmen çynlakaý | ||
Twi (Akan) aniberesɛm | ||
Ukrainian серйозно | ||
Urdu سنجیدگی سے | ||
Uyghur ئەستايىدىل | ||
Uzbek jiddiy | ||
Vietnamese nghiêm túc | ||
Welsh o ddifrif | ||
Xhosa nzulu | ||
Yiddish עמעס | ||
Yoruba isẹ | ||
Zulu sina |
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Afrikaans "ernstig" shares the same Proto-West Germanic root as English "earnest" and can have the alternate meanings of "important" or "sincere." |
| Albanian | Despite its similarity to "serious" in English, "seriozisht" lacks the connotation of gravity and is used to emphasize an action or state. |
| Arabic | بجدية may derive from the word "جد" (father's brother) or from the Persian word "جد" (diligence). |
| Azerbaijani | "Ciddi" also means "tight" or "difficult" in Azerbaijani. |
| Basque | The word "serio" also means "grave" or "earnest" in Basque. |
| Belarusian | Belarusian "сур'ёзна" is derived from the Church Slavonic "съринъ" (serious), which shares a root with "сер" (heart). |
| Bengali | The term "গুরুত্ব সহকারে" (literally "with importance") in Bengali can also refer to situations involving dignity or honor. |
| Bosnian | Ozbiljno is also the name of a town in Serbia. |
| Bulgarian | The word "сериозно" comes from the Old Russian word "серьзнѣ" (серѣзно), meaning "important, serious, severe". |
| Catalan | "Seriosament" comes from the Latin word "serius" (meaning "grave, important"), and also means "solemnly, earnestly" in Catalan. |
| Cebuano | In Spanish the Cebuano word "seryoso" means "calm, cool"} |
| Chinese (Simplified) | The term "认真地" is composed of two characters: "认真", which means "to be serious", and "地", which is a particle indicating adverbial manner. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | "認真地" is composed of characters meaning "true" and "see". |
| Corsican | The phrase "in seriu" in Corsican was likely borrowed from the Latin phrase "in serio," meaning "in earnest" or "seriously." |
| Croatian | "Ozbiljno" can also mean "real" or "full", as in "ozbiljna ljubav" (real love). |
| Czech | The word "vážně" can also mean "truly" or "actually" in Czech. |
| Danish | The Danish word “helt seriøst” also shares etymological roots with “serum,” a fluid that separates from a clotted or coagulated substance, such as blood or milk. |
| Dutch | The word "ernstig" comes from the Middle Dutch word "ernst", which meant "sorrowful" or "grave". |
| Esperanto | Serioze is derived from the word "serio" which means "serious" in Esperanto and "serious" in Latin. |
| Estonian | The word "tõsiselt" is derived from the adjective "tõsine" (true), reflecting its original meaning of "in earnest." |
| Finnish | This word is derived from the noun "vaka" (seriousness) and the suffix "-sti" (forming adverbs). |
| French | The word "sérieusement" in French comes from the Latin word "serius," meaning "grave," "earnest," or "important." |
| Frisian | The Frisian word "serieus" comes from the Latin word "serius" (meaning "grave") and the French word "sérieux" (meaning "seriousness"). |
| Galician | The Galician word "en serio" derives from the Latin phrase "in serio", meaning "in earnest". |
| Georgian | The Georgian word " ciddi" is of Arabic origin and means "important", "grave". |
| German | The word 'Ernsthaft' comes from the Middle High German word 'ernest', meaning 'serious, solemn, or earnest'. |
| Greek | Σοβαρός (sobarós) also means 'important' and 'urgent' in Greek. |
| Haitian Creole | The Haitian Creole word "seryezman" derives from the French word "sérieusement" meaning "seriously". |
| Hausa | The word "da gaske" also conveys the concept of being "true, genuine, or authentic." |
| Hawaiian | The Hawaiian word "koʻikoʻi" can also mean "firmly" or "unyielding." |
| Hebrew | ברצינות is cognate to ברצון (with pleasure) and relates to one's readiness to do something. |
| Hindi | The Hindi word "गंभीरता से" (seriously) derives from the Sanskrit word "गंभ', meaning "to sound" or "to roar". |
| Hmong | Tiag comes from the same Proto-Hmong-Mien root as the word for "true" and "trustworthy". |
| Hungarian | The word "Komolyan" can also mean "genuinely" or "in earnest". |
| Icelandic | The word "alvarlega" in Icelandic originates from the Old Norse word "alvarr," meaning "serious" or "grave". |
| Igbo | "Kpọrọ ihe" can also mean "something grave," and is often used when someone has done something that is particularly bad or dangerous. |
| Indonesian | In Indonesian, 'serius' can also mean 'calm' or 'composed', derived from the Sanskrit word 'sirya' meaning 'heat, sun'. |
| Irish | Dáiríre may also refer to a meeting or conference, especially one in which serious matters are discussed. |
| Italian | "Sul serio" can be interpreted literally, meaning "on the serious," a reference to a person's demeanor, or figuratively, referring to an earnest and determined approach to a particular task. |
| Japanese | The two characters in "真剣に" (真剣) originally meant "a real sword". |
| Javanese | The Javanese word "serius" can also mean "in earnest" or "with sincerity". |
| Kazakh | The Kazakh word "байыпты" (seriously) also means "solid", "reliable", or "well-founded". |
| Korean | 진지하게, originally a word used in Buddhist literature to express the idea of 'earnestness' or 'sincerity' |
| Kurdish | The term “bi giranî” can also refer to a person or a group that are overly serious, dull or boring (e.g., "Ewqas bi giranî ye" meaning “He/she is so serious.”). |
| Kyrgyz | The word "олуттуу" can also be translated as "heavy", "important", or "difficult". |
| Latin | The word "gravissime" (seriously) is the superlative form of "gravis" (heavy), indicating a maximum level of seriousness. |
| Latvian | The word "nopietni" (meaning "seriously") has the same etymology as "nopietns" (meaning "impartial") |
| Lithuanian | The word "rimtai" in Lithuanian can also mean "deliberately" or "purposefully" |
| Luxembourgish | The word "eescht" is derived from Old High German "erist" and can also mean "first" or "first of all" in Luxembourgish. |
| Macedonian | The word "сериозно" in Macedonian is also used colloquially to mean "ironic" or "in jest." |
| Malagasy | The word "zava-dehibe" is thought to mean literally "a thing of the night" in Malagasy. |
| Malay | The Malay word "serius" originates from the Javanese word "serius" meaning "strict". |
| Maltese | The word "bis-serjetà" is derived from the Italian word "serietà", meaning "seriousness". |
| Maori | The Maori word "tino" also means "pure" or "essence," reflecting its use in the phrase "tino rangatiratanga" (absolute sovereignty). |
| Marathi | The word "गंभीरपणे" can also mean "deeply", "gravely" or "with a heavy heart" in Marathi. |
| Mongolian | The word "ноцтой" is derived from the verb "ноцох" meaning "to believe" or "to trust". |
| Nepali | The word "गम्भीरतापूर्वक" is derived from the Sanskrit word "गम्भीर", meaning "deep, serious, or weighty". |
| Norwegian | The word "alvor" originates from "alvar", meaning the serious and sacred character of life's important events. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The Swahili word "majuzu" (meaning "religious zealot/fanatic") is the probable etymology of mozama, and is the origin of the second sense of "religious." |
| Pashto | The word په جدي ډول in Pashto, which means "seriously", is a compound word consisting of the preposition په (on, upon) and the noun جدي (seriousness). |
| Persian | The Persian word "به طور جدی" also means "in a serious way". |
| Polish | The word "poważnie" can also mean "gravely" or "with dignity" in Polish. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | "A sério" is the Portuguese equivalent of "seriously", but it can also mean "for real" or "in earnest". |
| Romanian | “Serios” is also used in Romanian with the nuance of “strict” or “severe”. |
| Russian | The Russian idiom "шутки в сторону" ("seriously") can alternately be translated as "let's drop the jokes now," implying that it is time to get serious. |
| Samoan | The word "matuaʻi" has other meanings such as "old" and "elderly". |
| Scots Gaelic | The word "gu dona" in Scots Gaelic also translates to "of all things" or "above all", although the latter is rarely encountered in speech. |
| Serbian | "Озбиљно" originates from the old Slavic word "обь" (in Bulgarian: "об") and the suffix "-ьнъ". It is related to the words "обь" ("around") and "объяти" ("to embrace"), referring to the notion of encompassing something with one's attention or focus. |
| Sesotho | The word "ka botebo" can also mean "certainly" or "without a doubt". |
| Shona | The word "zvakakomba" is also used to express strong agreement or to affirm something |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word "سنجيده" is similar to its Persian cognate, "سنجیده", meaning both "seriously" and "carefully weighed". |
| Slovak | The word "vážne" comes from the same root as "važný" meaning "serious" or "important". |
| Slovenian | It is cognate with the Latin word "res" (thing) via the Slavic languages. |
| Somali | The word "dhab ah" in Somali, meaning "seriously," is derived from Arabic and has a similar meaning in that language. |
| Spanish | "Seriamente" viene de la palabra latina *serius*, relacionado con la palabra griega *hieros*, que significa "propiedad sagrada". |
| Sundanese | The word "serius" can also mean "serious" or "important". |
| Swahili | "Kwa umakini" also means "with attention" in Swahili. |
| Swedish | Allvarligt comes from the Old Swedish word "allvar", meaning "gravity", which in turn comes from the Latin word "gravis", meaning "heavy". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "seryoso" is derived from the Spanish word "serio", which can mean "earnest" or "grave" as well as "serious". |
| Tajik | The Tajik word "ҷиддӣ" (seriously), originally meant “firmly,” and is related to the word "ҷадд" (firm, steadfast). |
| Tamil | It stems from the word "தீ" (fire) and therefore originally meant "like fire". |
| Telugu | తీవ్రంగా is an adverb in Telugu that means intensely, deeply, or fully. |
| Thai | The word "อย่างจริงจัง" can also mean "earnestly" or "sincerely" in Thai. |
| Turkish | Ciddi anlamda (literally "by the serious meaning") is also used to mean "really" or "actually". |
| Ukrainian | The word "серйозно" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *sъrьdь, meaning "anger" or "wrath", and now refers to a state of seriousness or solemnity. |
| Urdu | سنجیدگی سے is a compound of 'سنجید' (thoughtful, balanced, judicious) and 'گی' (a suffix that adds 'ly') that may also imply 'with gravity, solemnity'. |
| Uzbek | The Uzbek word "jiddiy" is derived from the Arabic word "jadd," meaning "seriousness" or "earnestness". |
| Vietnamese | Nghiêm túc (seriously) derives from two words: “nghiêm” (severe) and “túc” (careful) |
| Welsh | The phrase literally translates as "o' the difference," but "difference" in this sense may have originally implied "difference from what might have been expected." |
| Xhosa | In other Bantu languages, 'nzulu' refers to an elephant, due to its weighty size and importance. |
| Yiddish | The term derives from the Yiddish "ma'amin", which literally means "believer" (of biblical or talmudic teachings). |
| Yoruba | "Isẹ" in Yoruba also means "business" or "work". |
| Zulu | The origin of the Zulu word 'sina' may lie in the Nguni verb 'sina' (to hate) or the Zulu noun 'isina' (a thing of no account). |
| English | The word 'seriously' originated from the Middle English 'serios' and Latin 'serius' meaning 'important' or 'grave'. |