Skip to content
- Latin: Homo – The original Latin word means “human being” or “man.” This is still used in many languages in scientific contexts, such as in the term homo sapiens.
- English: Human – Pronounced with a clear “H” sound at the start of “human.”
- Italian: Uomo – Derived from the Latin “homo,” it means “man” or “human.”
- Spanish: Hombre – Derived from the Latin “homo,” it now primarily means “man,” but it can also refer to “human” in older or formal contexts.
- Portuguese: Homem – Also derived from “homo,” it means “man” but can be used in a broader sense to mean “human.”
- French: Homme – Derived from “homo,” it means “man” and, in some contexts, can refer to humankind or “human.”
- French: Être humain – The word “humain” starts with an “h” sound even though the “h” is silent in pronunciation.
- Romanian: Om – Also derived from “homo,” it means “man” or “human being.”
- Dutch: Menselijk wezen – There is a Dutch word “homo” (from Latin) used in formal or scientific contexts for “human being.”
- Esperanto: Homo – Esperanto, a constructed international language, takes “homo” directly from Latin, and it means “human being.”
- Finnish: Homo – Borrowed from Latin, “homo” is used in scientific contexts.
- Hungarian: Humán – Borrowed from Latin, “humán” is used in modern scientific contexts and human resources, etc., though the everyday word for human is ember.
- Basque: Hominido – has adopted “hominido” (from Latin) to refer to early human species or “hominid” in scientific contexts.
- Maltese: Uman – Borrowed from Latin/Italian roots, “uman” in Maltese means “human.” It begins with a “hu-” sound, similar to the English “human.”
- Indonesian/Malay: Human – Derived from English, “human” is used in scientific or formal contexts to describe a human being or humanity.
- Japan 人 (ひと, hito) – a native “H”-initial word: ひと (hito) which means person.
- Korea: The word 휴먼 (hyuman) exists as a loanword from English (“human”) in modern media.
- Uyghur (in Asia). The word for “human” / “person” is ئادەم → Adem (IPA: /ɑːˈdɛm/ or /æˈdɛm/). Derived from the name Adam, similar to Arabic Ādam. But the words for “all humans” or “mankind” are ھەممە ئادەم → Hemme adem.
- Hemme = “all” Adem = “person / human being”
- Yaqui (Uto-Aztecan, Arizona/Sonora) in Mexico and North America uses the word Hiaki to mean person/people. It is an autonym for “people.”
- Cheyenne in North America uses hetane for “Man,” not abstract “humankind”. This word is derived from Proto‑Algonquian erenyiwa.
- Hadza (Tanzania – Africa) uses the word “Hadza/Hatsa” to mean “human being” (singular). The word Hazabee is the plural and means “people.”
- Hindi: मानव The word Mānava is used for human being. Yet in Devanagari script, the “म” sound is somewhat close to an “h” aspirated sound in terms of airflow.
