Time in Different Languages
Discover 'Time' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Time
Afrikaans tyd | ||
Albanian koha | ||
Amharic ጊዜ | ||
Arabic زمن | ||
Armenian ժամանակը | ||
Assamese সময় | ||
Aymara pacha | ||
Azerbaijani vaxt | ||
Bambara waati | ||
Basque denbora | ||
Belarusian час | ||
Bengali সময় | ||
Bhojpuri समय | ||
Bosnian vrijeme | ||
Bulgarian време | ||
Catalan temps | ||
Cebuano panahon | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 时间 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 時間 | ||
Corsican tempu | ||
Croatian vrijeme | ||
Czech čas | ||
Danish tid | ||
Dhivehi ވަގުތު | ||
Dogri समां | ||
Dutch tijd | ||
English time | ||
Esperanto tempo | ||
Estonian aeg | ||
Ewe ɣeyiɣi | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) oras | ||
Finnish aika | ||
French temps | ||
Frisian tiid | ||
Galician tempo | ||
Georgian დრო | ||
German zeit | ||
Greek χρόνος | ||
Guarani aravo | ||
Gujarati સમય | ||
Haitian Creole tan | ||
Hausa lokaci | ||
Hawaiian manawa | ||
Hebrew זְמַן | ||
Hindi समय | ||
Hmong sijhawm | ||
Hungarian idő | ||
Icelandic tíma | ||
Igbo oge | ||
Ilocano oras | ||
Indonesian waktu | ||
Irish am | ||
Italian tempo | ||
Japanese 時間 | ||
Javanese wektu | ||
Kannada ಸಮಯ | ||
Kazakh уақыт | ||
Khmer ពេលវេលា | ||
Kinyarwanda igihe | ||
Konkani वेळ | ||
Korean 시각 | ||
Krio tɛm | ||
Kurdish dem | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) کات | ||
Kyrgyz убакыт | ||
Lao ທີ່ໃຊ້ເວລາ | ||
Latin tempus | ||
Latvian laiks | ||
Lingala ntango | ||
Lithuanian laikas | ||
Luganda omulundi | ||
Luxembourgish zäit | ||
Macedonian време | ||
Maithili समय | ||
Malagasy fotoana | ||
Malay masa | ||
Malayalam സമയം | ||
Maltese ħin | ||
Maori wā | ||
Marathi वेळ | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯃꯇꯝ | ||
Mizo hun | ||
Mongolian цаг хугацаа | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) အချိန် | ||
Nepali समय | ||
Norwegian tid | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) nthawi | ||
Odia (Oriya) ସମୟ | ||
Oromo yeroo | ||
Pashto وخت | ||
Persian زمان | ||
Polish czas | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) tempo | ||
Punjabi ਸਮਾਂ | ||
Quechua hayka pacha | ||
Romanian timp | ||
Russian время | ||
Samoan taimi | ||
Sanskrit कालः | ||
Scots Gaelic ùine | ||
Sepedi nako | ||
Serbian време | ||
Sesotho nako | ||
Shona nguva | ||
Sindhi وقت | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) වේලාව | ||
Slovak čas | ||
Slovenian čas | ||
Somali waqtiga | ||
Spanish hora | ||
Sundanese waktos | ||
Swahili wakati | ||
Swedish tid | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) oras | ||
Tajik вақт | ||
Tamil நேரம் | ||
Tatar вакыт | ||
Telugu సమయం | ||
Thai เวลา | ||
Tigrinya ግዜ | ||
Tsonga nkarhi | ||
Turkish zaman | ||
Turkmen wagt | ||
Twi (Akan) berɛ | ||
Ukrainian час | ||
Urdu وقت | ||
Uyghur ۋاقىت | ||
Uzbek vaqt | ||
Vietnamese thời gian | ||
Welsh amser | ||
Xhosa ixesha | ||
Yiddish צייַט | ||
Yoruba aago | ||
Zulu isikhathi |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "tyd" in Afrikaans originates from the Old English word "tid" meaning "season" or "hour". |
| Albanian | The Albanian word "koha" is also used to mean "opportunity" or "chance". |
| Amharic | "ጊዜ" in Amharic is cognate with "ጊዜ" in Tigrinya with a slight change in spelling. Both derive from the same root "זמן" in Ge'ez meaning "time" and "weather". |
| Arabic | The word "زمن" can also refer to "weather" or an "era" in Arabic. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word for "time" ("ժամանակը") also means "season" and is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root "*keh₂-/*keh₃-", meaning "to observe, notice, or mark time." |
| Azerbaijani | "Vaxt" also means "season" in Azerbaijani, and "wax" in English. |
| Basque | The word "denbora" can also refer to a particular time or moment, and, more specifically, can refer to the present moment. |
| Belarusian | In Russian and Ukrainian, "час" means "an hour" and "time". |
| Bengali | The word "সময়" derives from the Bengali verb "সম", meaning "to unite" or "come together", and can also refer to "opportunity" or "seasonable time". |
| Bosnian | "Vrijeme" is also used as a weather term, meaning "weather" or "forecast." |
| Bulgarian | The word "време" also means "weather" in Bulgarian. |
| Catalan | The Catalan word "temps" derives from the Latin word "tempus," which also means "weather" or "season." |
| Cebuano | The word "panahon" is also used to refer to a season or an era. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | The Chinese word "时间" (time) originally referred to the intervals between the equinoxes and solstices. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 時間 also can refer to "leisure time" or "opportunity" in Chinese, as in "趁有時間，去旅行吧" (Take a trip when you have the time). |
| Corsican | Corsican "tempu" likely derives from the same Latin root as French "temps" and Italian "tempo": "tempus" |
| Croatian | In some Slavic languages (such as Polish, Czech, Slovak), the word 'vrijeme' also relates to 'boiling water'. |
| Czech | The word "čas" can also mean "opportunity" or "period of time" in Czech. |
| Danish | The Danish word "tid" derives from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "tide" or "period." |
| Dutch | The word "tijd" in Dutch is derived from the Old Germanic word "tid" meaning "period of time," and is related to the English word "tide" meaning "the regular rise and fall of the sea level." |
| Esperanto | The word "tempo" also means "fast" or "lively" in Esperanto, and derives from the French word of the same meaning. |
| Estonian | The word "aeg" also refers to a season (eg. "talv" = winter), a weather event (eg. "vihm" = rain), or a period in time (eg. "päev" = day). |
| Finnish | The word "aika" is also used to refer to an occasion or an event, similar to the English word "time" in expressions like "at that time" or "a good time was had by all". |
| French | The word "temps" in French can also mean "weather" or "atmosphere". |
| Frisian | "Tiid" in Frisian can also refer to the "right moment" or "opportunity". |
| Galician | Galician "tempo" can also mean "weather". |
| Georgian | The Georgian word for "time", "დრო", also means "period" or "season". |
| German | In German the word 'Zeit' can also refer to a periodical publication or an age or era. |
| Greek | The Greek word "χρόνος" derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷer- "to turn, to go around", the same root as the English word "wheel". |
| Gujarati | The Gujarati word "સમય" comes from Sanskrit, where it meant "proper" or "right". |
| Haitian Creole | In Haitian Creole, the word "tan" is also used to refer to "weather," "season," or "era." |
| Hausa | The word "lokaci" in Hausa can also mean "place" or "location." |
| Hawaiian | Manawa comes from Proto-Polynesian *manafa, meaning "space, expanse, interval, time, opportunity, space between". Its cognate in Maori is manawa, meaning "heart". |
| Hebrew | "זְמַן" was also the name for a certain biblical measure of time, equal to 18 minutes and 25.2 seconds. |
| Hindi | The Hindi word "समय" also refers to a "favorable occasion" or "propitious moment". |
| Hmong | Sijhawm also means 'duration, age, and generation' depending on context and placement in a sentence. |
| Hungarian | "Idő" is also an archaic word for "weather". |
| Icelandic | Cognate with the English "time" and derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *temeh_. |
| Igbo | "Oge" also means "world" or "era" in Igbo. |
| Indonesian | The Javanese word "waktu" is cognate with "waktu" in Malay both ultimately deriving from the Sanskrit "samaya" or "samayam" meaning "an appointed time". |
| Irish | Irish "am" can also mean weather, as in "an t-am" (the weather). |
| Italian | In Italian, "tempo" can also refer to "weather" or "tense". |
| Japanese | The kanji '時' can also mean 'hour', 'weather' or 'season', reflecting the ancient Japanese concept of time as a natural phenomenon. |
| Javanese | 'Wektu' can also refer to 'weather' and 'situation'. |
| Kannada | ಸಮಯ has alternate meanings of 'opportunity', 'circumstance', and 'situation' |
| Kazakh | "Уақыт" is also used in Kazakh to refer to "season", "epoch", and "occasion" |
| Khmer | ពេលវេលា is also used to refer to a moment or point of time. |
| Korean | In addition to "time", "시각" (sigak) can also mean "viewpoint" or "perspective". |
| Kurdish | The Kurdish word "dem" can also refer to a "period" or "era" in history. |
| Kyrgyz | The Kyrgyz word for time ("убакыт") originates from the Old Turkic word "ubak," meaning "side of a mountain slope." |
| Latin | The word "tempus" in Latin also refers to the temples of the head, the forehead, and the sides |
| Latvian | “Laiks” (time) derives from “laiksts” (age, epoch), but also means “fate, destiny” like “karma” in Sanskrit. |
| Lithuanian | The word 'laikas' also means 'weather' and is related to the Latvian word 'laiks'. |
| Luxembourgish | The word "Zäit" in Luxembourgish may have originated from "Zīt", meaning "period" or "epoch" in Old High German. |
| Macedonian | The word 'време' can also mean 'weather' in Macedonian. |
| Malagasy | Malagasy "fotoana" derives from Proto-Austronesian *qatuR "sun" and literally means "sunlight". |
| Malay | Masa, meaning 'time' in Malay, is derived from an old Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word meaning 'day' or 'sun'. |
| Malayalam | സമയം's etymological root shares a connection with 'सम्यक्' (samyak) in Sanskrit, signifying totality, wholeness, and completion, and also implying a state of balance and order. |
| Maltese | "Ħin" can also refer to an "occasion", "appointment" or "opportunity" in the Maltese language. |
| Maori | In Maori, "wā" not only refers to "time" but also to "day" and "season". |
| Marathi | "वेळ" may also mean "need" or "occasion" in Marathi. |
| Mongolian | The first part of the compound word цаг хугацаа, цаг, refers to a specific amount of time or to an indefinite amount of time |
| Myanmar (Burmese) | The word "အချိန်" is derived from the Pali word "kāla" and it can also mean season, period, or age. |
| Nepali | The Nepali word 'समय' is also used in a spiritual or philosophical context to denote 'the right moment'. |
| Norwegian | In Norwegian, "tid" can also refer to a period of time. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "nthawi" can also mean "opportunity" or "chance". |
| Pashto | The word "وخت" can also mean "season" or "era" and is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eu̯s- "dawn, day, light". |
| Persian | In astronomy, the word "زمان" (zamān) can refer to the "right time" or "propitious moment" for a specific event. |
| Polish | The Polish word "czas" (time) also means "period," and is cognate with the Old Church Slavonic word for "hour" or "moment." |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | "Tempo" in Portuguese derives from the Latin "tempus" meaning "time", and also means "weather". |
| Punjabi | The Punjabi word "ਸਮਾਂ" (time) is originally derived from the Sanskrit word "समय" (samaya) and also relates to the concept of "appropriate place and time". |
| Romanian | "Timp" is also a Romanian unit of measurement for volume, specifically for liquids, equal to 100 liters. |
| Russian | "Время" is a Slavic word, which also means "weather" in Russian. |
| Samoan | Taimi can refer to both a specific time and a period of time in Samoan. |
| Scots Gaelic | The Scots Gaelic word "ùine" can also refer to a season or a period of life. |
| Serbian | In Old Church Slavonic, "време" has both the meaning of "time" and "weather". |
| Sesotho | The word "nako" in Sesotho has other meanings such as "whilst" and "until". |
| Shona | "Nguva" also means 'season', 'turn' or 'stage' |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word "وقت" derives from a Persian word meaning either "an opportune moment" or "a specific point in time". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | In Sinhala, the word "වේලාව" (time) also refers to a specific point in the day or to an occasion. |
| Slovak | The word "čas" in Slovak shares its root with the Czech word "čas" and the Polish word "czas," all of which derive from the Proto-Slavic word "*časŭ". In Old Church Slavonic, the word "časŭ" could also mean "fate" or "destiny." |
| Slovenian | The Slovenian word "čas" shares a root with the Czech "čas" and the Russian "час" (chas), all meaning both "time" and "hour." |
| Somali | Somali word 'Waqtiga, which literally means 'to rise', can also refer to a period, or a deadline. |
| Spanish | The word "hora" derives from Latin “hora” that referred to a specific time and also to the goddess of the seasons. |
| Sundanese | The Sundanese word "waktos" also refers to a musical performance featuring a group of singers. |
| Swahili | The Swahili word "wakati" also refers to a specific period of time, typically an hour. |
| Swedish | In Swedish, the word "tid" can also mean "news" or "newspaper." |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | "Oras" also refers to a specific instance or occasion. |
| Tajik | The Tajik word "вақт" has a Sanskrit root which means "to say" and another Persian meaning of "portion". |
| Tamil | நேரம் is also the Tamil word for "straight" indicating an abstract concept referring to the straight line of events. |
| Telugu | The word "సమయం" in Telugu is derived from the Sanskrit word "समय" (samaya), which means "a fixed or appointed time". |
| Thai | The Thai word "เวลา" (pronounced "wela") can also refer to a particular point in time or a specific occasion. |
| Turkish | The word 'zaman' in Turkish is derived from the Persian word 'zamān', meaning 'season', 'period', or 'era'. |
| Ukrainian | The word 'час' comes from the Proto-Slavic word 'časъ', which also had the meaning of 'fate'. |
| Urdu | The Urdu word "وقت" also refers to "leisure" or "opportunity" and derives from the Arabic term for "fixed time or appointment." |
| Uzbek | The word "vaqt" in Uzbek is derived from the Persian word "vaqt" meaning not only "time" but also "opportunity" or "occasion". |
| Vietnamese | Ngoài nghĩa thông thường 'thời gian', 'thời gian' còn có nghĩa là 'thời khắc, lúc' trong một số cụm từ như 'thời gian vàng' hoặc 'thời gian rảnh'. |
| Welsh | The word "amser" also derives from the Proto-Celtic word for "summer", sharing a root with the English word "summer". |
| Xhosa | Ixesha can also refer to an appointment or a period of time. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "צייַט" (time) is derived from the Middle Low German word "tît" (time) and is cognate with the English word "tide". |
| Yoruba | The word "aago" can also mean "fate" or "destiny" in Yoruba, reflecting the belief that time is closely tied to one's predetermined path in life. |
| Zulu | Isikhathi is derived from the verb 'ukukhatha', meaning 'to become tired' or 'to rest', and the suffix '-i-', indicating a state of being. |
| English | Etymology: 'Time' comes from Old English 'tīma' meaning 'season', and is related to Old Norse 'tími' ('time') and 'dægn' ('day'). |