Slowly in Different Languages
Discover 'Slowly' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Slowly
Afrikaans stadig | ||
Albanian ngadalë | ||
Amharic በቀስታ | ||
Arabic ببطء | ||
Armenian դանդաղ | ||
Assamese ধীৰে ধীৰে | ||
Aymara k'achaki | ||
Azerbaijani yavaş-yavaş | ||
Bambara dɔɔnin-dɔɔnin | ||
Basque poliki-poliki | ||
Belarusian павольна | ||
Bengali আস্তে আস্তে | ||
Bhojpuri धीरे-धीरे | ||
Bosnian polako | ||
Bulgarian бавно | ||
Catalan lentament | ||
Cebuano hinay | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 慢慢地 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 慢慢地 | ||
Corsican pianu pianu | ||
Croatian polako | ||
Czech pomalu | ||
Danish langsomt | ||
Dhivehi މަޑުމަޑުން | ||
Dogri आस्ता | ||
Dutch langzaam | ||
English slowly | ||
Esperanto malrapide | ||
Estonian aeglaselt | ||
Ewe blewu | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) dahan dahan | ||
Finnish hitaasti | ||
French lentement | ||
Frisian stadich | ||
Galician lentamente | ||
Georgian ნელა | ||
German langsam | ||
Greek αργά | ||
Guarani mbeguekatu | ||
Gujarati ધીમે ધીમે | ||
Haitian Creole dousman | ||
Hausa ahankali | ||
Hawaiian lohi | ||
Hebrew לאט | ||
Hindi धीरे से | ||
Hmong maj mam | ||
Hungarian lassan | ||
Icelandic hægt | ||
Igbo nwayọ nwayọ | ||
Ilocano nabattag | ||
Indonesian perlahan | ||
Irish go mall | ||
Italian lentamente | ||
Japanese ゆっくり | ||
Javanese alon-alon | ||
Kannada ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ | ||
Kazakh баяу | ||
Khmer យ៉ាងយឺត | ||
Kinyarwanda buhoro | ||
Konkani सवकास | ||
Korean 천천히 | ||
Krio smɔl smɔl | ||
Kurdish hêdî hêdî | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) بەهێواشی | ||
Kyrgyz жай | ||
Lao ຊ້າໆ | ||
Latin lente | ||
Latvian lēnām | ||
Lingala malembe | ||
Lithuanian lėtai | ||
Luganda mpola | ||
Luxembourgish lues | ||
Macedonian полека | ||
Maithili धीरे सं | ||
Malagasy tsikelikely | ||
Malay perlahan-lahan | ||
Malayalam പതുക്കെ | ||
Maltese bil-mod | ||
Maori pōturi | ||
Marathi हळूहळू | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯇꯞꯅ | ||
Mizo zawitein | ||
Mongolian аажмаар | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ဖြည်းဖြည်း | ||
Nepali बिस्तारी | ||
Norwegian sakte | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) pang'onopang'ono | ||
Odia (Oriya) ଧୀରେ | ||
Oromo suuta | ||
Pashto ورو | ||
Persian به آرامی | ||
Polish powoli | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) lentamente | ||
Punjabi ਹੌਲੀ ਹੌਲੀ | ||
Quechua allillamanta | ||
Romanian încet | ||
Russian медленно | ||
Samoan lemu | ||
Sanskrit मन्दम् | ||
Scots Gaelic gu slaodach | ||
Sepedi ka go nanya | ||
Serbian полако | ||
Sesotho butle | ||
Shona zvishoma nezvishoma | ||
Sindhi آهستي | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) සෙමින් | ||
Slovak pomaly | ||
Slovenian počasi | ||
Somali tartiib ah | ||
Spanish despacio | ||
Sundanese lalaunan | ||
Swahili polepole | ||
Swedish långsamt | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) dahan dahan | ||
Tajik оҳиста | ||
Tamil மெதுவாக | ||
Tatar әкрен | ||
Telugu నెమ్మదిగా | ||
Thai ช้า | ||
Tigrinya ቐስ ብቐስ | ||
Tsonga nonoka | ||
Turkish yavaşça | ||
Turkmen ýuwaş-ýuwaşdan | ||
Twi (Akan) nyaa | ||
Ukrainian повільно | ||
Urdu آہستہ آہستہ | ||
Uyghur ئاستا | ||
Uzbek sekin | ||
Vietnamese chậm rãi | ||
Welsh yn araf | ||
Xhosa kancinci | ||
Yiddish פּאַמעלעך | ||
Yoruba laiyara | ||
Zulu kancane |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Afrikaans "stadig" comes from Old Dutch "stade", meaning place or site. |
| Albanian | The Albanian word "ngadalë" is also used to refer to someone who is patient, calm, or relaxed. |
| Amharic | The word በቀስታ can also be used to mean "quietly" or "calmly". |
| Arabic | The word "ببطء" in Arabic is derived from the root "بطأ" meaning "to be slow or sluggish" or "to procrastinate or delay." |
| Armenian | The word "դանդաղ" comes from the root "դանջ" meaning "to crush, to grind, to press, to oppress", and originally referred to the slowness and heaviness resulting from oppression. |
| Azerbaijani | "Yavaş-yavaş" is a compound word consisting of "yavaş", which means slow, and reduplicative "yavaş", which gives the word the sense "gradually" or "little by little". |
| Basque | "Poliki-poliki" in Basque is an onomatopoeia that imitates the sound produced when walking slowly. |
| Belarusian | The word "павольна" can be literally translated as "to fall down", which reflects the gradual and deliberate nature of slow movement. |
| Bengali | The Bengali word "আস্তে আস্তে" can also mean "carefully" or "gently"} |
| Bosnian | This word is a contraction of two Serbo-Croatian words, " polako" (softly or gently) and "poleka" (dance, walk, or saunter). |
| Bulgarian | The Bulgarian word "бавно" can also mean "heavily" or "thoroughly", as in "бавно готвене" (slow cooking). |
| Catalan | The word "lentament" in Catalan comes from the Latin word "lentus," meaning "slow" or "sluggish." |
| Cebuano | The word "hinay" in Cebuano can also refer to a gentle or soft movement, as well as a low or quiet sound. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | "慢慢地" literally means "slow slow ground," highlighting the gradual nature of moving slowly. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | In addition, it can mean "not quickly" in spoken Chinese but also "little by little". |
| Corsican | In Corsican, "pianu pianu" is the reduplicative form of "pianu" ("slow") and is also used figuratively to refer to a "stepwise" or "gradual" process. |
| Croatian | The word 'polako' has a Slavic root shared with Russian 'poleg' (field, flat). |
| Czech | The Czech word 'pomalu' can also be used figuratively to mean 'reluctantly' or 'carefully'. |
| Danish | Etymology: from Old Swedish *langsam, from Middle Low German *langesam, from Old High German *langsam, from Proto-West-Germanic *langasōm-. Related to Dutch langzaam, German langsam, Swedish långsam, Norwegian langsom, Icelandic langsár. |
| Dutch | Langzaam means 'slowly' but also 'tired' or 'dull'. |
| Esperanto | Esperanto's malrapide could also mean "badly rapidly" or "very slowly" in English. |
| Estonian | "Aega" is in the genitive case and it is actually "time". "La" is a verb meaning "to let". So "aeglaselt" means "letting time pass", which is another way of saying "slowly". |
| Finnish | The word 'hitaasti' is derived from the Proto-Uralic word '*hita-', meaning 'slowly, gradually'. |
| French | The word "lentement" is derived from the Latin word "lentus", which means "slow" or "flexible". |
| Frisian | The word "stadich" in Frisian is a cognate of the Dutch "stedelijk" (urban), and originally referred to the leisurely pace of city life. |
| Galician | “Lentamente” ultimately derives from the same Latin root as the English word “lento” (“flexible”), and shares the same etymology with “lente” (“a magnifying glass”) and “dilatado” (“dilated”). |
| Georgian | The word "ნელა" in Georgian can also mean "weakly" or "gently", derived from the Proto-Kartvelian root "*ne-la" (soft, weak). |
| German | The German word "langsam" is derived from the Middle High German "langen," meaning "to stretch" or "to reach for." |
| Greek | "αργά" also means "brightly". The word in ancient Greek meant "white", "shining" and "bright" and hence "slow", because it was thought that bright objects move more slowly than dark objects. |
| Haitian Creole | The Creole word "dousman" is most likely derived from the French adverb "doucement," meaning "gently" or "slowly." |
| Hausa | The word "ahankali" in Hausa is thought to be derived from the Arabic word "ahlan" meaning "slowly" or "gently." |
| Hawaiian | Lohi can also mean "to be dull" or "to be slow-witted". |
| Hebrew | The Hebrew word "לאט" (pronounced "lah-aht") is also used to describe something that is "quiet" or "softly". |
| Hindi | The word "धीरे से" in Hindi can also mean "gently" or "lightly". |
| Hmong | The Hmong word "maj mam" literally means "step by step" and can also be used to describe a gradual process. |
| Hungarian | The word "lassan" also can mean "calm" when it comes to people, and it's the base of the word "lassú" which means "slow". |
| Icelandic | It cognate with Gothic "hauhs", German "hoch", and English "high", denoting an uphill movement. |
| Igbo | "Nwayọ nwayọ" in Igbo originally meant "softly, gently," which can also be related to "slowly." |
| Indonesian | The word "perlahan" likely originates from Proto-Austronesian "*pelan" which also means slowness or gentleness. |
| Irish | Historically, ‘go mall’ is associated with the sound of someone moving through a bog or soft earth, and also of slow movement in general. |
| Italian | The word "lentamente" derives from the Latin word "lentus," meaning "slow," "sticky," or "soft." |
| Japanese | The word 'ゆっくり' can also mean 'carefully' or 'deliberately' when used in certain contexts. |
| Javanese | In Javanese, "alon-alon" can also mean "relaxed" or "serene". |
| Kannada | ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ is a derivative of the word 'ನಿಧಿ', meaning 'treasure'. Thus it also means 'carefully' or 'gently'. |
| Kazakh | The Kazakh word "баяу" (slowly) is also used in Kazakh to describe the speed of a river and has the alternative meaning of "calmly" or "quietly". |
| Khmer | The term "យ៉ាងយឺត" can also refer to a type of Khmer noodle dish made with thick rice noodles cooked in a flavorful broth. |
| Korean | "천천히" originally meant "naturally" or "by oneself" but its meaning gradually shifted to "slowly" sometime between the 15th and 17th centuries. |
| Kyrgyz | The word "жай" can also be used to describe the movement of a snail, caterpillar or a snake. |
| Lao | "ຊ້າໆ" can also mean "gently" or "softly" in Lao. |
| Latin | In Latin, "lente" can also refer to a type of bean or lentil. |
| Latvian | "Lēnām" is also used as an adverb meaning "gently." |
| Lithuanian | “Lėtai” is derived from “lėtas” and is a cognate with Latvian “lēts” (“kind”) and Slavic “latъ” (“good, kind”), suggesting an original sense of “gently, softly” |
| Luxembourgish | "Lues" is also a German word meaning "syphilis" and is etymologically related to the Luxembourgish word "laues" meaning "warm". |
| Macedonian | The etymology of "полека" is closely linked to the Albanian "ngadalë" (slowly). |
| Malagasy | The Malagasy word "tsikelikely" derives from Proto-Austronesian "*tikek" ("slowly") and can sometimes mean "quietly" or "gently" if used with care. |
| Malay | In Indonesian, "perlahan-lahan" also means "gradually" or "continuously". |
| Malayalam | The word "പതുക്കെ" in Malayalam, meaning "slowly", is derived from the Sanskrit word "पद" (pada), meaning "foot" or "step", and can also mean "gently" or "carefully". |
| Maltese | The word "bil-mod" is derived from the Arabic word "bil-mawt", meaning "with death", and is used to emphasize the gradual and inevitable nature of something occuring. |
| Maori | The word "pōturi" can also refer to a state of "being at rest" or "being still" |
| Marathi | The word 'हळूहळू' can also mean 'gradually' or 'by degrees'. |
| Mongolian | The word "аажмаар" can also mean "gently" or "at ease". |
| Myanmar (Burmese) | ဖြည်းဖြည်း (phnyay phnyay) means "gently," and can express concepts such as slowness of motion, the cautious application of force, as well as a gradual progression of some state or condition. |
| Nepali | The word "बिस्तारी" can also mean "gradually" or "step by step". |
| Norwegian | Sakte's origin lies in Old Norse and shares roots with other Scandinavian languages as well as the English word 'soft'. |
| Pashto | The word "ورو" also means "gently" or "carefully". |
| Persian | The Persian word "به آرامی" can also mean "calmly" or "gently". |
| Polish | Powoli is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "povolь" meaning "leisure," "softly," or "mildly."} |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | Lentamente is derived from the Latin word "lentus", meaning "slow" or "sluggish". |
| Romanian | "Încet" also means "quietly" or "gently" in Romanian. |
| Russian | The word "медленно" (slowly) derives from an older form "медьлено" meaning "to hinder" and can also refer to hesitation or difficulty. |
| Samoan | The word "lemu" can also mean "gently" or "faintly". |
| Scots Gaelic | The word “gu slaodach” is a compound word in Gaelic, composed of "gu," meaning “to," and "slaodach," meaning "slow." The word "slaodach" has another, more archaic meaning: "lazy." This meaning of "slaodach" has been lost in the modern Scottish Gaelic language but persists in the Manx and Irish languages. |
| Serbian | Polako in Serbian could also mean 'a bit', 'slightly', 'gently' or 'softly'. |
| Sesotho | The word "butle" in Sesotho also means "softly" or "gently." |
| Shona | "Zvishoma nezvishoma" is a repetitive form of the Shona word "zvishoma," which means "slowly," and is used to emphasize a gradual or unhurried pace or process. |
| Sindhi | The word "آهستي" in Sindhi comes from the Persian word "آهسته" meaning "leisurely" or "gently". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The Sinhala word සෙමින් can also refer to "calmly", "gently" or "with patience." |
| Slovak | Pomaly derives from an Old Slavic word meaning "late" and is cognate with the Polish word "powolny." |
| Slovenian | "Počasi" comes from the Proto-Slavic word *pok-ol, which also meant "later." |
| Somali | In Quranic Arabic, "tartiib" means "to give it its due importance" and "to do it properly", not "to do it slowly." |
| Spanish | The Spanish word "despacio" comes from Latin "dispatium," meaning "interval" or "pause." |
| Sundanese | The word "lalaunan" in Sundanese also refers to a type of traditional lullaby sung to children. |
| Swahili | "Polepole" not only indicates "slowly," it also can refer to "gently" or "peacefully." |
| Swedish | "Långsamt" comes from "lång" (long) + "sam" (slowly), and also shares an etymology with the word "long" in English. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "dahan dahan" also means "carefully" or "gently". |
| Tajik | The word "оҳиста" is derived from the Persian word "آهسته" and can also mean "quietly" or "gently". |
| Tamil | The word "மெதுவாக" is derived from the Old Tamil root "மெல்" (mel), meaning "to go slowly". In modern usage, the word can also refer to gentleness or softness. |
| Thai | The word "ช้า" shares a root with the Thai word "ชั่ว" (evil), highlighting the negative connotations associated with tardiness in Thai culture. |
| Turkish | The word "yavaşça" means "slowly" and is derived from the root word "yavaş", which means "slow." |
| Ukrainian | The word "повільно" can also mean "deliberately" or "methodically" in Ukrainian. |
| Uzbek | The Uzbek word "sekin" is originally a loanword from Persian and is used as an adverb and noun, respectively meaning "slowly" and "calmness, peace, and quiet". |
| Vietnamese | Slow is also used to describe something that is dull or boring |
| Welsh | The Welsh word "yn araf" literally translates to "in slow", indicating a gradual or measured pace. |
| Xhosa | The Xhosa word 'kancinci' has no known cognates or alternate meanings. |
| Yiddish | The word "פּאַמעלעך" is also used in Yiddish to mean "gently" or "carefully". |
| Yoruba | The word 'laiyara' can also refer to a person who is sluggish or lazy. |
| Zulu | "Kancane" is a Zulu word meaning "slowly" and also refers to the "calm breeze" that precedes a rainstorm. |
| English | The word "slowly" comes from the Old English word "slōwian," meaning "to be tardy or sluggish." |