(Image courtesy of BBC.)

Do you know what the word “biodiversity” means?

In 2010, the UN Year of Biodiversity, the BBC conducted a survey. The survey showed that most people don’t know the meaning of “biodiversity.” Most people thought it was a type of laundry powder. Consider that in perspective. Biodiversity loss is the biggest problem facing us today, alongside global warming. Yet most people don’t even know what the word means. How many could actually give a definition? Given that lack of understanding, we can take hope. We surveyed the world’s languages. We found that most have their own word for “biodiversity.”

How to translate the word “biodiversity”

We used Google Translate to convert the word “biodiversity” into 103 languages. It’s impressive and heartening to realize that interest in biodiversity is truly global. We did find a few gaps! There were a few languages for which we couldn’t find an equivalent word. Do you know of the word for biodiversity in any of those languages? If so, please let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the list. Also, if you know of any language not in the list, please let us know. Either contact us, or write your comment below.

How to listen to the translated word for “biodiversity”

For non-native speakers of some of these languages, their word for biodiversity seems like a real tongue twister. If you want to hear how it’s pronounced, type “biodiversity” into the first window in Google Translate. Click the speaker icon below the translated word. You will hear the translated spoken word. (Not all languages have this feature.)

Original translation data

Click for the spreadsheet. Biodiversity translated into world languages

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List of words for biodiversity in 103 languages

Afrikaans – biodiversiteit
Albanian – biodiversiteti
Amharic – ብዝሃ ሕይወት
Arabic – التنوع البيولوجي
Armenian – Կենսաբազմազանություն
Azerbaijani – bioloji müxtəliflik
Bangla/Bengali – জীব বৈচিত্র্য
Basque – biodibertsitatea
Belarusian – біяразнастайнасці
Bosnian – biodiverzitet
Bulgarian – биологичното разнообразие
Burmese – ဇီဝမျိုးစုံမျိုးကွဲများ
Catalan – biodiversitat
Cebuano – biodiversidad
Chinese (Mandarin) – 生物多样性
Corsican – a biodiversità
Croatian – bioraznolikosti
Czech – biodiverzity
Danish – biodiversitet
Dutch – biodiversiteit
English – biodiversity
Esperanto – biodiverseco
Estonian – bioloogiline mitmekesisus
Filipino – biodiversity
Finnish – biodiversiteetti
French – biodiversité
Galacian – biodiversidade
Georgian – ბიომრავალფეროვნება
German – biodiversität
Greek – βιοποικιλότητα
Gujarati – જૈવવિવિધતા
Haitian Creole – divèsite biyolojik
Hausa – bambancin halittu
Hawaiian – nā meaola like’oleHebrew – המגוון הביולוגי
Hindi – जैव विविधता
Hmong – biodiversity
Hungarian – a biológiai sokféleség
Icelandic – líffræðileg fjölbreytileik
Igbo – Ụdị ndụ dị iche iche
Indonesian – keanekaragaman hayati
Irish – bithéagsúlacht
Italian – biodiversità
Japanese – 生物多様性
Javanese – keanekaragaman hayati
Kannada – ಜೀವವೈವಿಧ್ಯ
Kazakh – Биоәртүрлілік
Khmer – ជីវចំរុះ
Korean – 생물 다양성
Kurdish – biyanîparêz
Kyrgyz – биологиялык ар түрдүүлүк
Lao – ຊີວະນາໆພັນ
Latin – biodiversitatis
Latvian – bioloģiskā daudzveidība
Lithuanian – biologinė įvairovė
Luxembourgish – biodiversitéit
Macedonian – Биодиверзитет
Malagasy – harena voajanahary
Malay – biodiversitiMalayalam – ജൈവവൈവിദ്ധ്യം
Maltese – bijodiversità
Maori – te koiora
Marathi – जैवविविधता
Mongolian – Биологийн төрөл зүйл
Nepali – जैव विविधता
Norwegian – biologisk mangfold
Nyanja – zachilengedwe
Pashto – ژوندی تنوع
Persian – تنوع زیستی
Polish – różnorodności biologicznej
Portuguese – biodiversidade
Punjabi – ਜੀਵ ਵਿਭਿੰਨਤਾ
Romanian – biodiversitatea
Russian – биоразнообразия
Samoan – meaola eseese
Scottish Gaelic – bith-iomadachd
Serbian – Биодиверзитет
Shona – biodiversity
Sindhi – حياتي تنوع
Sinhala – ජෛව විවිධත්වය
Slovak – biodiverzita
Slovenian – biotske raznovrstnosti
Somali – kala duwanaanta bay’ada
Southern Sotho – mefuta-futa ea lihloliloeng
Spanish – biodiversidad
Sundanese – biodiversiti
Swahili – biodiversity
Swedish – biologiska mångfalden
Tajik – Гуногунии биологӣ
Tamil – பல்லுயிர்
Telugu – జీవవైవిధ్యం
Thai – ความหลากหลายทางชีวภาพ
Turkish – biyoçeşitlilik
Ukrainian – Біорізноманіття
Urdu – جیو ویو
Uzbek – bioxilma-xillik
Vietnamese – Đa dạng sinh học
Welsh – bioamrywiaeth
Western Frisian – biodiversity
Xhosa – eziphilayo
Yiddish – ביאָדיווערסיטי
Yoruba – oniruuru ipinsiyeleyele
Zulu – eziphilayo

Do these languages have a word for biodiversity?

Cambodian
Fiji
Quechua
Tatar
Tibetan
Tonga

The post The word for “biodiversity” in 103 different world languages appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.