Twelve in Different Languages
Discover 'Twelve' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Twelve
Afrikaans twaalf | ||
Albanian dymbëdhjetë | ||
Amharic አስራ ሁለት | ||
Arabic اثني عشر | ||
Armenian տասներկու | ||
Assamese বাৰ | ||
Aymara tunka paya | ||
Azerbaijani on iki | ||
Bambara tannifila | ||
Basque hamabi | ||
Belarusian дванаццаць | ||
Bengali বারো | ||
Bhojpuri बारह | ||
Bosnian dvanaest | ||
Bulgarian дванадесет | ||
Catalan dotze | ||
Cebuano napulog duha | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 十二 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 十二 | ||
Corsican dodeci | ||
Croatian dvanaest | ||
Czech dvanáct | ||
Danish tolv | ||
Dhivehi ބާރަ | ||
Dogri बारां | ||
Dutch twaalf | ||
English twelve | ||
Esperanto dek du | ||
Estonian kaksteist | ||
Ewe wuieve | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) labindalawa | ||
Finnish kaksitoista | ||
French douze | ||
Frisian tolve | ||
Galician doce | ||
Georgian თორმეტი | ||
German zwölf | ||
Greek δώδεκα | ||
Guarani pakõi | ||
Gujarati બાર | ||
Haitian Creole douz | ||
Hausa goma sha biyu | ||
Hawaiian umikumālua | ||
Hebrew שתיים עשרה | ||
Hindi बारह | ||
Hmong kaum ob | ||
Hungarian tizenkét | ||
Icelandic tólf | ||
Igbo iri na abụọ | ||
Ilocano dose | ||
Indonesian duabelas | ||
Irish a dó dhéag | ||
Italian dodici | ||
Japanese 12 | ||
Javanese rolas | ||
Kannada ಹನ್ನೆರಡು | ||
Kazakh он екі | ||
Khmer ដប់ពីរ | ||
Kinyarwanda cumi na kabiri | ||
Konkani बारा | ||
Korean 열 두번째 | ||
Krio twɛlv | ||
Kurdish duwanzdeh | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) دوازدە | ||
Kyrgyz он эки | ||
Lao ສິບສອງ | ||
Latin duodecim | ||
Latvian divpadsmit | ||
Lingala zomi na mibale | ||
Lithuanian dvylika | ||
Luganda kumi na bbiri | ||
Luxembourgish zwielef | ||
Macedonian дванаесет | ||
Maithili बारह | ||
Malagasy roa ambin'ny folo | ||
Malay dua belas | ||
Malayalam പന്ത്രണ്ട് | ||
Maltese tnax | ||
Maori tekau ma rua | ||
Marathi बारा | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯇꯔꯥꯅꯤꯊꯣꯏ | ||
Mizo sawmpahnih | ||
Mongolian арван хоёр | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) တကျိပ်နှစ်ပါး | ||
Nepali बाह्र | ||
Norwegian tolv | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) khumi ndi awiri | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବାର | ||
Oromo kudha lama | ||
Pashto دولس | ||
Persian دوازده | ||
Polish dwanaście | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) doze | ||
Punjabi ਬਾਰਾਂ | ||
Quechua chunka iskayniyuq | ||
Romanian doisprezece | ||
Russian двенадцать | ||
Samoan sefulu ma le lua | ||
Sanskrit द्विदशकं | ||
Scots Gaelic dhà-dheug | ||
Sepedi lesomepedi | ||
Serbian дванаест | ||
Sesotho leshome le metso e mmedi | ||
Shona gumi nembiri | ||
Sindhi ٻارهن | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) දොළොස් | ||
Slovak dvanásť | ||
Slovenian dvanajst | ||
Somali laba iyo toban | ||
Spanish doce | ||
Sundanese dua belas | ||
Swahili kumi na mbili | ||
Swedish tolv | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) labindalawa | ||
Tajik дувоздаҳ | ||
Tamil பன்னிரண்டு | ||
Tatar унике | ||
Telugu పన్నెండు | ||
Thai สิบสอง | ||
Tigrinya ዓሰርተ ክልተ | ||
Tsonga khumembirhi | ||
Turkish on iki | ||
Turkmen on iki | ||
Twi (Akan) dummienu | ||
Ukrainian дванадцять | ||
Urdu بارہ | ||
Uyghur ئون ئىككى | ||
Uzbek o'n ikki | ||
Vietnamese mười hai | ||
Welsh deuddeg | ||
Xhosa shumi elinambini | ||
Yiddish צוועלף | ||
Yoruba mejila | ||
Zulu ishumi nambili |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "twaalf" in Afrikaans is derived from the Old Dutch word "tweelf", which itself comes from the Proto-Germanic word "*twa-lif" meaning "two-leftover". |
| Albanian | The Albanian word "dymbëdhjetë" (twelve) is derived from the Proto-Albanian word "*dŭmbidĭeti", meaning "two tens" |
| Amharic | The word "አስራ ሁለት" can also be used to describe a group of people or things that are twelve in number. |
| Arabic | In addition to its numerical meaning, "اثني عشر" (ithnā ʿashar) also refers to the small intestine in Arabic due to its twelve segments. |
| Azerbaijani | "On iki" derives from the Old Turkic word "on eki" meaning "the second ten". |
| Basque | The word 'hamabi' derives from 'hamar' ('ten') and the Basque article '-bi' ('two'). |
| Belarusian | Belarusian "дванаццаць" likely originates from Proto-Slavic *dvьnadestь referring to ten fingers and two feet. |
| Bengali | The word "বারো" (twelve) is also used to refer to a "dozon" in Bengali. |
| Bosnian | "Dvanaest" originates from Proto-Slavic root *dvanadesetъ, deriving from the root *dъvа "two" and the suffix *-na-dъsetъ "ten". |
| Bulgarian | The word "дванадесет" (twelve) in Bulgarian is composed of the words "два" (two) and "надесет" (ten), meaning literally "two and ten". |
| Catalan | The Catalan word "dotze" also means "dozen" and comes from the Latin "duodecim", meaning "twelve". |
| Cebuano | The word "napulog duha" is derived from the Proto-Austronesian word for "ten" *sa-puluq and the Proto-Austronesian word for "two" *duSa. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 十二 originally meant 'twelve animals' in the Chinese zodiac, but was later extended to mean 'twelve months' or 'twelve years' |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 十二 (Shí'èr) is a compound word, composed of 十 (Shí) |
| Corsican | The Corsican word "dodeci" derives from the Latin "duodecim" and also means "the twelve days of Christmas". |
| Croatian | The word 'dvanaest' originates from the Proto-Slavic word 'dъva na desęte', meaning 'two on ten'. |
| Czech | Dvanáct derives from Proto-Slavic *dūvanadeset, composed of *dъva "two" and *nadeset "ten". |
| Danish | The word "tolv" is derived from Proto-Germanic *twalib, which also meant "two-left" or "two remaining". |
| Dutch | The word "twaalf" is derived from the Proto-Germanic word "twahlf" meaning "two-tens". |
| Esperanto | The Esperanto word "dek du" is also a homophone of the phrase "deka dudeko", meaning "two and a half decades". |
| Estonian | "Kaksteist" is derived from the Proto-Finnic word *kaksteihsa, meaning "two tens." |
| Finnish | "Kaksi" means "two" and "toista" means "second", so "kaksitoista" literally means "two second". |
| French | In Old French, “douze” was written as “douse”, which meant both “twelve” and “sweet”. |
| Frisian | Tolve can also mean "eleven" in certain dialects of Frisian. |
| Galician | The word "doce" in Galician, besides meaning "twelve", also refers to the day of the month, and to a type of popular music and dance of Galician origin. |
| Georgian | The Georgian word |
| German | "Zwölf" is derived from the Old High German word "zwelif", which means "two leftover", referring to the two leftover fingers after counting to ten on both hands. |
| Greek | The word "δώδεκα" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root "dwei-dekṃ" meaning "two tens". |
| Gujarati | "બાર" in Gujarati can also refer to a measure of weight equivalent to about 1.2 kilograms. |
| Haitian Creole | Douz is also used as an idiom meaning 'a lot', e.g., "Mwen gen douz travay pou fè" (I have a lot of work to do). |
| Hausa | Hausa "goma sha biyu" means "twelve" and can also refer to a traditional Hausa hairstyle and a type of bean. |
| Hawaiian | In Hawaiian mythology, the term 'umikumālua' also refers to the twelve nights of the new moon. |
| Hebrew | The Hebrew word "שתיים עשרה" can also mean "twenty-second" in ordinal numbers. |
| Hindi | बारह ('twelve') is cognate with 'bāra' meaning 'burden' in Prakrit and 'bhāra' meaning 'weight' in Sanskrit. |
| Hmong | "Ob" is derived from "oib," referring to an old counting system where numbers 11 and 12 were counted as 10 plus 1 and 10 plus 2, respectively. |
| Hungarian | In a counting rhyme, the word "tizenkettő" is followed by "egy tucat", which literally means "a dozen". |
| Icelandic | Tolf, meaning "twelve" in Icelandic, also refers to the twelfth day of Yule and the midwinter solstice. |
| Igbo | In addition to meaning "twelve", "iri na abụọ" in Igbo is also an expression used to indicate the late afternoon or early evening time period. |
| Indonesian | Etymology of "duabelas" in Indonesian: "dua" (two) + "belas" (ten) + "-as" (suffix forming numeral multipliers) |
| Italian | The Italian word "dodici" is derived from the Latin word "duodecim", which also means "twelve". In Old Italian, the word was "dodece", which has now evolved into "dodici". |
| Japanese | 十二 (jūni) can also mean "perfect" or "complete. |
| Javanese | In addition to its primary meaning as "twelve", the Javanese word "rolas" can also refer to a group of twelve people or objects. |
| Kannada | The word "ಹನ್ನೆರಡು" has its origins in the Proto-Dravidian word "*panre" meaning "ten" and "*ir" meaning "two". |
| Kazakh | The word "он екі" in Kazakh has its roots in the Old Turkic "on äki" and can also mean "the whole thing" or "the full number". |
| Khmer | The Khmer word "ដប់ពីរ" can also mean "ten plus two" or "a baker's dozen." |
| Korean | 열 두번째 ('twelve') can also mean 'repeatedly' or 'many times'. |
| Kurdish | The Kurdish word "duwanzdeh" is cognate with the Persian "dovāzdah" and ultimately derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *dwo-dekṃ, meaning "two tens". |
| Kyrgyz | "Он эки" means "two twenties" in Kyrgyz, as the decimal system was first introduced in Central Asia in the 17th century. |
| Latin | "Duodecim" originates from the Proto-Italic word "*d(w)odekm" (or similar), meaning "two ten". |
| Latvian | The word "divpadsmit" is derived from the Proto-Baltic word *dwei-desmit meaning "two tens". |
| Lithuanian | "Dvylika" shares the root word with "dvi", which means "two", indicating it was an assembly of two sixes. |
| Luxembourgish | The word "zwielef" is derived from the Old High German "zwelf" and is related to the English word "twelve". |
| Macedonian | The root of this word is shared with "дванаест" (twelve) in other Slavic languages, including Russian, Polish, and Czech. |
| Malagasy | "Roa ambin'ny folo", in Malagasy, is the addition of ten and two instead of a direct translation of "twelve". The word "roa" means ten while "folo" means two. |
| Malay | The Malay word "dua belas" is a compound word formed by "dua" (two) and "belas" (ten), where "belas" itself is derived from the Sanskrit word "dvadasa". |
| Maltese | The Maltese word "tnax" derives from the Arabic word "ithna 'ashar" and shares its root with the Hebrew word "shnayim 'asar". |
| Marathi | The word "बारा" can also mean "a large group of people" or "a multitude" in Marathi, reflecting its Sanskrit origin "वारा" meaning "crowd". |
| Nepali | The Nepali word "बाह्र" (twelve) is related to the Sanskrit word "द्वादश" (dvādaśa), which also means twelve and is derived from the root "द्वि" (dvi) meaning "two" and "दश" (daśa) meaning "ten". |
| Norwegian | Tolv, meaning twelve in Norwegian, might have roots in a term denoting "two" and another for "left", i.e. two left until the hand is full, and is related to the German "zwölf" and Dutch "twaalf". |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The number "twelve" in Nyanja (Chichewa) is also a traditional measurement used to count certain things, such as bundles of small fish or firewood. |
| Pashto | The word "دولس" can also mean "collection" or "group" in Pashto. |
| Persian | In addition to its meaning as "twelve," "دوازده" also translates to "dozen" and can be used as a measure of quantity in Persian. |
| Polish | "Dwanaście" likely derives from "dwa na ście" ("two on a hundred"): after counting to a hundred in the old Slavic system, people would start over with the same counting words on a new "hundred". This is why the numbers "eleven" through "nineteen" have names meaning "one on a hundred," "two on a hundred," and so on. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The alternate meanings of “doze” are sleep, a light nap, and a lazy or idle person. |
| Punjabi | The Punjabi word for "twelve" can also be used informally for any large group. |
| Romanian | In Romanian, "doisprezece" derives from Slavic "dva" (two) and "nadeset" (ten), representing the original base-12 counting system. |
| Russian | "Двенадцать" derives from the Proto-Slavic word *dъva na desęte, meaning "two on ten". |
| Samoan | The Samoan word "sefulu ma le lua" originated from a reduplicated form of the word "lua" (two). |
| Serbian | "Дванаест" also means "the 12th one" or "12". In Slavic mythology, there are 12 (дванаест) days of winter solstice. Therefore, it is often a synonym for the word "December". |
| Sesotho | The literal translation of “leshome le metso e mmedi” is “hands that join and close”. |
| Shona | The word "gumi nembiri" can also mean "a group of twelve" or "a dozen" in Shona. |
| Sindhi | The word "ٻارهن" can also refer to the "twelve rāgās" in Sindhi classical music. |
| Slovak | "Dvanásť" shares etymological roots with the Sanskrit "dvādaśa" and the Latin "duodecim" |
| Slovenian | The word 'dvanajst' derives from Proto-Slavic and can also mean 'dozen'. |
| Somali | The Somali word "laba iyo toban" (twelve) literally translates to "two and ten". |
| Spanish | The word "doce" (twelve) in Spanish may derive from the Latin "duodecim" or from the Proto-Indo-European "-dek" (to make ten) meaning "to add 2"} |
| Sundanese | The word "dua belas" in Sundanese can also be used to mean "a dozen" or "twelve o'clock". |
| Swahili | The Swahili word 'kumi na mbili,' meaning 'twelve,' translates literally to 'ten with two'. |
| Swedish | Tolv, meaning twelve in Swedish, comes from the Old Norse word "tolf", meaning multiple of four. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "labindalawa" is derived from the Malay word "duabelas", which means "two over ten". |
| Tajik | The word "дувоздаҳ" in Tajik can also mean "a dozen". |
| Telugu | "పన్నెండు" is a Sanskrit compound word derived from "पंच" (pancha - five) and "दश" (dasha - ten), together meaning "five over ten". |
| Thai | The word "สิบสอง" (twelve) derives from the Sanskrit word "dvādaśa", and is cognate with the English word "dozen". |
| Turkish | "On iki" (twelve) means ten plus two.} |
| Ukrainian | The Ukrainian word "дванадцять" is cognate with other Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, and Czech, and is derived from the Proto-Slavic form *dъva na desęte, meaning "two on ten". |
| Urdu | The word "بارہ" also means "a unit of twelve" and "a group of twelve" in Urdu. |
| Uzbek | The word "o'n ikki" in Uzbek is composed of the words "o'n" (ten) and "ikki" (two), and can also mean "the two of ten" or "the eleventh". |
| Vietnamese | "Mười hai" literally means "ten and two" in Vietnamese. |
| Welsh | The number 12 in Welsh is composed of "deu" (two) and "deg" (ten). |
| Xhosa | 'Shumi elinambini', also called the 'thumb', refers to the counting system involving counting on both hands before using one hand as reference, which gives rise to twelve fingers in total. |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "צוועלף" (tzwelf) derives from the Middle High German "zwelef". |
| Yoruba | Mejila can also mean "twelve-year-old", such as in the praise name "Mejila Alo", meaning "the twelve-year-old is a warrior". |
| Zulu | The word "ishumi nambili" in Zulu is derived from "ishumi" (ten) and "nambi" (two), and also means "a dozen". |
| English | "Twelve" comes from the Old English "twelif," from the Proto-Germanic "*twalib" and the Proto-Indo-European root "*dwe-dek-m," meaning "two" and "ten." |