An 'untranslatable' word is one with no single-word equivalent in another language — a genuine lexical gap — even though the underlying idea can almost always be explained in a sentence or two; every language has words like this, in both directions.
Reading time
— 4 min
Updated
— Aug 16, 2026
Fact-reviewed
— Aug 16, 2026
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
1'Untranslatable' doesn't mean incomprehensible — it means no single word in the target language captures the idea in one word. The concept itself is almost always explainable with a sentence or two.
2Linguists call this gap a lexical gap, and every language has plenty of them — English has concepts other languages need whole phrases to express, just as often as the reverse.
3When a foreign word describing a useful gap gets used often enough, English tends to simply adopt it as a loanword — 'schadenfreude' and 'hygge' are already partway through that process.
The concept
An "untranslatable" word is a word from one language that has no exact single-word match in another language — English has to use a whole phrase or sentence to explain the same idea. Danish "hygge" (a cozy, contented togetherness), Portuguese "saudade" (a wistful longing for someone or something absent), and Japanese "komorebi" (sunlight filtering through tree leaves) are commonly cited examples. None of these ideas are mysterious or impossible for an English speaker to grasp — they're just concepts English never bothered to compress into a single word of its own.
With the lexical-gap framing in mind, it's easier to see why "untranslatable" is really a claim about vocabulary, not a claim about what people from different language backgrounds can or can't understand.
Quick check
What does it actually mean to call a word 'untranslatable'?
Worked examples
Example 1: Well-known lexical gaps (baseline)
Danish "hygge" describes a specific cozy, unhurried contentment, often shared with others — candlelight, warm drinks, unstructured time together. German "schadenfreude" describes pleasure taken in someone else's misfortune. Japanese "tsundoku" describes the habit of acquiring books and letting them pile up unread. Each concept is easy enough to explain in English in a sentence, which is exactly the point — the gap is about a missing single word, not a missing idea.
Example 2: Words caught mid-borrowing (variation)
Some "untranslatable" words are really in transition rather than permanently stuck outside English. "Schadenfreude" has appeared in English dictionaries for decades and is now widely used and understood without italics or explanation by many English speakers — it's arguably already an English word on loan from German, not truly untranslatable anymore. "Hygge" followed a similar path more recently, entering wider English use as Danish lifestyle writing became popular internationally. This shows "untranslatable" isn't a permanent label — it describes a gap at a moment in time, and gaps close as words get borrowed.
Example 3: The gap runs both directions (real-world / applied)
English has its own lexical gaps that other languages fill differently. English doesn't have a single common word that distinguishes an older sibling from a younger one the way Mandarin does ("jiějiě" for older sister versus "mèimei" for younger sister), so English speakers routinely describe the same relationship with a longer phrase. Recognizing this two-way pattern is the practical, real-world payoff of understanding lexical gaps: it reframes "untranslatable" from a claim that one language or culture is uniquely deep, toward a much more ordinary and universal fact about how vocabulary develops unevenly across every language.
Quick check
A word like 'schadenfreude' is now widely used and understood by many English speakers without needing translation. What does that suggest?
Common mistakes
Common Mistakes
✕
Treating an 'untranslatable' word as something no other language's speakers could ever understand.
→ The concept is almost always explainable in a sentence or two — the gap is about a missing single word, not a missing idea.
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Assuming only certain 'exotic' languages have untranslatable words, while English doesn't.
→ Lexical gaps run in every direction — English lacks single-word equivalents for plenty of concepts other languages have compressed into one word, like Mandarin's separate words for older versus younger siblings.
✕
Assuming a word stays 'untranslatable' forever.
→ Once a foreign word gets borrowed and understood widely enough, it becomes a loanword rather than a gap — 'schadenfreude' is a clear example of a word partway through that shift.
Common misconception
“An 'untranslatable' word literally cannot be explained or understood in another language at all.”
Every so-called untranslatable word can be explained — that's exactly how dictionaries and articles describe them in the first place. What's missing is a single native word doing the same job, not the ability to understand or discuss the concept. Calling a word untranslatable is a claim about vocabulary structure (a lexical gap), not a claim about the limits of human understanding across cultures.
Quick check
If a word is described as 'untranslatable,' what's the most accurate way to understand that claim?
What to do next
What to do next
Next time you see an 'untranslatable words' list, check whether the word actually has no English equivalent, or just a less common one.
Notice when a foreign word you use often, like 'schadenfreude,' has quietly become an English loanword rather than staying 'foreign.'
Try to spot a genuine English lexical gap — a concept you can describe easily but that has no single word of its own.
Read the entry on Common Foreign Phrases Used in English to see the flip side — phrases English has borrowed wholesale rather than translating.
FAQ
FAQ
Related terms
Related terms
Lexical gap
A concept that a language has no single word for, even though the idea itself can usually still be expressed with a phrase or description. This is the technical term behind most 'untranslatable word' claims.
Loanword
A word taken from one language into another and at least partly naturalized in the borrowing language, such as 'tea' from Chinese or 'schadenfreude' from German.
Calque
A word or phrase translated piece by piece from another language into a new language, rather than borrowed as a whole sound — English 'flea market' is a calque of French 'marché aux puces.'
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