Curious about how to say “black” in different languages?
Whether you’re a language enthusiast, artist, traveler, or someone exploring cultural nuances, discovering how to say “black” in various languages is enlightening and useful.
This guide offers translations, pronunciations, and cultural insights related to the word “black” in over 100 languages.
Why Understanding “Black” in Different Languages is Fascinating

The word “black” represents more than just a color; it often symbolizes strength, elegance, mystery, and power across cultures.
Learning to express “black” in multiple languages provides a deeper understanding of its universal and cultural symbolism.
Saying “Black” in European Languages

Western European Languages
- English: Black (pronounced blak)
- French: Noir (pronounced nwar)
- German: Schwarz (pronounced shvahrts)
- Spanish: Negro (pronounced neh-groh)
- Italian: Nero (pronounced neh-roh)
- Portuguese: Preto (pronounced PREH-toh)
- Dutch: Zwart (pronounced zvahrt)
- Catalan: Negre (pronounced neh-greh)
Northern European Languages
- Swedish: Svart (pronounced svart)
- Danish: Sort (pronounced sohrt)
- Norwegian: Svart (pronounced svart)
- Finnish: Musta (pronounced moo-stah)
- Icelandic: Svartur (pronounced svahr-tur)
Eastern European Languages
- Russian: Чёрный (pronounced chyor-nih)
- Polish: Czarny (pronounced char-nih)
- Czech: Černý (pronounced chair-nee)
- Hungarian: Fekete (pronounced feh-keh-teh)
- Slovak: Čierny (pronounced chee-air-nee)
- Ukrainian: Чорний (pronounced chor-nee)
- Bulgarian: Черен (pronounced cher-en)
- Serbian: Црн (pronounced tsrn)
Celtic Languages
- Irish Gaelic: Dubh (pronounced doo)
- Scottish Gaelic: Dubh (pronounced doo)
- Welsh: Du (pronounced dee)
Other European Languages
- Basque: Beltza (pronounced bel-tsah)
- Maltese: Iswed (pronounced is-wed)
- Albanian: Zi (pronounced zee)
Saying “Black” in Asian Languages

East Asian Languages
- Chinese (Simplified): 黑 (pronounced hei)
- Chinese (Traditional): 黑 (pronounced hei)
- Japanese: 黒 (pronounced kuro)
- Korean: 검정 (pronounced gum-jong)
South Asian Languages
- Hindi: काला (pronounced kaa-lah)
- Bengali: কালো (pronounced kah-lo)
- Tamil: கருப்பு (pronounced kah-roo-pu)
- Urdu: کالا (pronounced kaa-laa)
- Punjabi: ਕਾਲਾ (pronounced kah-lah)
- Telugu: నలుపు (pronounced na-loo-poo)
- Gujarati: કાળો (pronounced kah-lo)
- Kannada: ಕಪ್ಪು (pronounced kah-poo)
Southeast Asian Languages
- Thai: สีดำ (pronounced see-dahm)
- Vietnamese: Đen (pronounced den)
- Indonesian: Hitam (pronounced hee-tahm)
- Malay: Hitam (pronounced hee-tahm)
- Khmer (Cambodian): ខ្មៅ (pronounced kh-mao)
- Burmese (Myanmar): အနက် (pronounced ah-nat)
Central Asian Languages
- Kazakh: Қара (pronounced ka-ra)
- Uzbek: Qora (pronounced koh-rah)
- Turkmen: Gara (pronounced gah-rah)
- Tajik: Сиёҳ (pronounced see-yoh)
Saying “Black” in Middle-Eastern Languages

- Arabic: أسود (pronounced as-wad)
- Hebrew: שחור (pronounced sha-khor)
- Persian (Farsi): سیاه (pronounced see-yah)
- Turkish: Siyah (pronounced see-yah)
- Kurdish (Sorani): ڕەش (pronounced resh)
Saying “Black” in African Languages

- Swahili: Nyeusi (pronounced nyeh-oo-see)
- Zulu: Mnyama (pronounced m-nyah-mah)
- Afrikaans: Swart (pronounced svart)
- Amharic: ጥቁር (pronounced tee-koohr)
- Yoruba: Dudu (pronounced doo-doo)
- Igbo: Ojii (pronounced oh-jee)
- Hausa: Baki (pronounced bah-kee)
- Somali: Madow (pronounced mah-dow)
Saying “Black” in Austronesian Languages

- Filipino (Tagalog): Itim (pronounced ee-teem)
- Cebuano: Itom (pronounced ee-tom)
- Maori: Pango (pronounced pahng-oh)
- Hawaiian: ʻEleʻele (pronounced eh-leh-eh-leh)
- Javanese: Ireng (pronounced ee-reng)
- Malagasy: Mainty (pronounced mine-tee)
Saying “Black” in Indigenous Languages

Native American Languages
- Quechua: Yana (pronounced yah-nah)
- Navajo: Łigai (approximate pronunciation lih-gah-ee)
Australian Aboriginal Languages
- Pitjantjatjara: Mulga (used to describe dark colors)
More Translations of BLACK in Different Languages

- Amharic (Ethiopia): ጥቁር (pronounced tee-koohr)
- Georgian: შავი (pronounced sha-vi)
- Mongolian: Хар (pronounced har)
- Nepali: कालो (pronounced kah-lo)
- Sinhala (Sri Lanka): කළු (pronounced kah-loo)
- Estonian: Must (pronounced must)
- Latvian: Melns (pronounced melns)
- Lithuanian: Juodas (pronounced yoo-das)
- Macedonian: Црн (pronounced tsrn)
- Armenian: Սեւ (pronounced sev)
- Bosnian: Crna (pronounced tsrna)
- Albanian: Zi (pronounced zee)
- French: Noir (pronounced nwar)
- German: Schwarz (pronounced shvahrts)
- Spanish: Negro (pronounced neh-groh)
- Italian: Nero (pronounced neh-roh)
- Portuguese: Preto (pronounced PREH-toh)
- Dutch: Zwart (pronounced zvahrt)
- Catalan: Negre (pronounced neh-greh)
- Swedish: Svart (pronounced svart)
- Danish: Sort (pronounced sohrt)
- Norwegian: Svart (pronounced svart)
- Finnish: Musta (pronounced moo-stah)
- Icelandic: Svartur (pronounced svahr-tur)
- Russian: Чёрный (pronounced chyor-nih)
- Polish: Czarny (pronounced char-nih)
- Czech: Černý (pronounced chair-nee)
- Hungarian: Fekete (pronounced feh-keh-teh)
- Slovak: Čierny (pronounced chee-air-nee)
- Ukrainian: Чорний (pronounced chor-nee)
- Bulgarian: Черен (pronounced cher-en)
- Serbian: Црн (pronounced tsrn)
- Irish Gaelic: Dubh (pronounced doo)
- Scottish Gaelic: Dubh (pronounced doo)
- Welsh: Du (pronounced dee)
- Basque: Beltza (pronounced bel-tsah)
- Maltese: Iswed (pronounced is-wed)
- Albanian: Zi (pronounced zee)
- Chinese (Simplified): 黑 (pronounced hei)
- Chinese (Traditional): 黑 (pronounced hei)
- Japanese: 黒 (pronounced kuro)
- Korean: 검정 (pronounced gum-jong)
- Hindi: काला (pronounced kaa-lah)
- Bengali: কালো (pronounced kah-lo)
- Tamil: கருப்பு (pronounced kah-roo-pu)
- Urdu: کالا (pronounced kaa-laa)
- Punjabi: ਕਾਲਾ (pronounced kah-lah)
- Telugu: నలుపు (pronounced na-loo-poo)
- Gujarati: કાળો (pronounced kah-lo)
- Kannada: ಕಪ್ಪು (pronounced kah-poo)
- Thai: สีดำ (pronounced see-dahm)
- Vietnamese: Đen (pronounced den)
- Indonesian: Hitam (pronounced hee-tahm)
- Malay: Hitam (pronounced hee-tahm)
- Khmer (Cambodian): ខ្មៅ (pronounced kh-mao)
- Burmese (Myanmar): အနက် (pronounced ah-nat)
- Kazakh: Қара (pronounced ka-ra)
- Uzbek: Qora (pronounced koh-rah)
- Turkmen: Gara (pronounced gah-rah)
- Tajik: Сиёҳ (pronounced see-yoh)
- Arabic: أسود (pronounced as-wad)
- Hebrew: שחור (pronounced sha-khor)
- Persian (Farsi): سیاه (pronounced see-yah)
- Turkish: Siyah (pronounced see-yah)
- Kurdish (Sorani): ڕەش (pronounced resh)
- Swahili: Nyeusi (pronounced nyeh-oo-see)
- Zulu: Mnyama (pronounced m-nyah-mah)
- Afrikaans: Swart (pronounced svart)
- Amharic: ጥቁር (pronounced tee-koohr)
- Yoruba: Dudu (pronounced doo-doo)
- Igbo: Ojii (pronounced oh-jee)
- Hausa: Baki (pronounced bah-kee)
- Somali: Madow (pronounced mah-dow)
- Filipino (Tagalog): Itim (pronounced ee-teem)
- Cebuano: Itom (pronounced ee-tom)
- Maori: Pango (pronounced pahng-oh)
- Hawaiian: ʻEleʻele (pronounced eh-leh-eh-leh)
- Javanese: Ireng (pronounced ee-reng)
- Malagasy: Mainty (pronounced mine-tee)
- Quechua: Yana (pronounced yah-nah)
- Navajo: Łigai (pronounced lih-gah-ee)
- Pitjantjatjara: Mulga (used to describe dark colors)
- Twi (Ghana): Bibire (pronounced bih-bee-reh)
- Fijian: Loaloa (pronounced lo-ah-lo-ah)
- Tongan: ʻUliʻuli (pronounced oo-lee-oo-lee)
- Greenlandic: Qernertoq (pronounced ker-ner-toq)
- Luxembourgish: Schwaarz (pronounced shwahrts)
- Esperanto: Nigra (pronounced nee-grah)
- Tibetan: ནག་པོ་ (pronounced nak-po)
- Azerbaijani: Qara (pronounced gah-rah)
- Kyrgyz: Кара (pronounced ka-ra)
- Tatar: Кара (pronounced ka-ra)
- Maltese: Iswed (pronounced is-wed)
- Pashto: تور (pronounced tor)
- Marathi: काळा (pronounced kah-laa)
- Sinhala: කළු (pronounced ka-loo)
- Bashkir: Ҡара (pronounced ka-ra)
- Mongolian: Хар (pronounced har)
- Shona: Mutema (pronounced moo-teh-mah)
- Chichewa: Wakuda (pronounced wah-koo-dah)
- Twi (Akan): Bibire (pronounced bee-bee-ray)
- Galician: Negro (pronounced neh-groh)
- Romanian: Negru (pronounced neh-groo)
- Scottish Gaelic: Dubh (pronounced doo)
- Igbo: Ojii (pronounced oh-jee)
- Uzbek: Qora (pronounced koh-rah)
- Turkmen: Gara (pronounced gah-rah)
- Armenian: Սեւ (pronounced sev)
- Somali: Madow (pronounced mah-dow)
- Ewe (Ghana/Togo): Ɣeʋu (pronounced gheh-voo)
- Bambara (Mali): Dibilen (pronounced dee-bee-len)
- Fulfulde (Nigeria): Wuro (pronounced woo-roh)
- Wolof: Nax (pronounced nahkh)
- Mossi (Burkina Faso): Naba (pronounced nah-bah)
- Tswana: Ntswape (pronounced n-tswah-peh)
- Venda: Tshena (pronounced tshay-nah)
- Setswana: Tsheswa (pronounced tshe-swah)
- Ga (Ghana): Chɛbi (pronounced chay-bee)
- Khoekhoe: //Are (pronounced ah-re)
- **121. Wolof (Senegal): Ñuul (pronounced nyool)
- Aymara: Ch’iyara (pronounced chee-yah-rah)
- Amis (Taiwan): Malikoda (pronounced mah-lee-koh-dah)
- Cantonese: 黑色 (pronounced hak-sik)
- Haitian Creole: Nwa (pronounced nwah)
- Tongan: ʻUliʻuli (pronounced oo-lee-oo-lee)
- Kikuyu: Muiru (pronounced moo-ee-roo)
- Ojibwe: Makade (pronounced mah-kah-day)
- Malagasy: Mainty (pronounced main-tee)
- Xhosa: Mnyama (pronounced m-nyah-mah)
- Chechen: Хур (pronounced khur)
- Fijian: Loaloa (pronounced loh-ah-loh-ah)
- Twi (Akan): Bibire (pronounced bee-bee-re)
- Kinyarwanda: Umukara (pronounced oo-moo-kah-rah)
- Kikuyu: Muiru (pronounced moo-ee-roo)
- Kurdish (Kurmanji): Reş (pronounced resh)
- Luxembourgish: Schwaarz (pronounced shvahrts)
- Macedonian: Црн (pronounced tsrn)
- Sicilian: Nìuru (pronounced nee-oo-roo)
- Corsican: Neru (pronounced neh-roo)
- Asturian: Negro (pronounced neh-groh)
- Cherokee: Agaliha (pronounced ah-gah-lee-hah)
- Chuvash: Хура (pronounced khoo-rah)
- Dholuo (Kenya): Maduong’ (pronounced mah-doo-ong)
- Fon (Benin): Nyɔnu (pronounced nyaw-noo)
- Tzotzil (Mexico): Balumil (pronounced bah-loo-meel)
- Dari (Afghanistan): سیاه (pronounced seeyah)
- Azerbaijani: Qara (pronounced gah-rah)
- Inuit (Inuktitut): Qaqortu (pronounced ka-kor-too)
- Zulu: Mnyama (pronounced m-nyah-mah)
Pronunciation Guide and Cultural Insights

Learning to say “black” in different languages provides insights into its varied cultural meanings, from elegance to resilience.
Tips for Proper Pronunciation
- Listen and Repeat: Use language apps to hear native speakers.
- Use Phonetic Spelling: Follow phonetic guides to approximate the sounds.
- Practice Regularly: Consistency builds confidence in pronunciation.
Cultural Significance
Black often carries significant symbolism in various cultures:
- Elegance and Authority: In many Western cultures, black signifies sophistication and power.
- Mystery and Spirituality: Black is linked to mystery and sometimes spirituality in numerous traditions.
- Protection and Resilience: Many African cultures view black as a color of protection and resilience.
Translation, Meaning, and Usage in Sentences

Examples in Different Languages
French
- Translation: Noir
- Meaning: Black
- Sentence: Le chat noir est mystérieux. (The black cat is mysterious.)
Russian
- Translation: Чёрный
- Meaning: Black
- Sentence: Чёрный цвет символизирует силу. (Black symbolizes strength.)
Swahili
- Translation: Nyeusi
- Meaning: Black
- Sentence: Jina lake ni Mwalimu Nyeusi. (His name is Mr. Black.)
Arabic
- Translation: أسود
- Meaning: Black
- Sentence: السماء سوداء في الليل. (The sky is black at night.)
Hindi
- Translation: काला
- Meaning: Black
- Sentence: यह काला रंग सुंदर है। (This black color is beautiful.)
Final Thoughts
Exploring how to say “black” in different languages reveals the rich cultural symbolism and universal importance of color.
Each translation conveys the term and reflects unique cultural meanings—black may symbolize elegance and power in some cultures.
In contrast, it represents mystery, resilience, or spirituality in others. Understanding these nuances connects you with diverse perspectives, making language learning a deeper, more meaningful journey.
Whether for travel, art, or cultural appreciation, knowing how to express “black” across languages enriches your understanding of this powerful color.
Embrace these translations to strengthen your cross-cultural knowledge and add depth to your interactions worldwide.
Source: Ethnologue Language Database