These entries have exceptionally many definitions, translations, pronunciations, plurals, alternative forms, etc. (The lists are currently maintained manually; some entries may have been missed. Suggest new categories on the talk page. Each category should list only the top 30 entries max.)

Terms which passed (by borrowing) through the greatest number of languages on their way to their destination. (Descent through different temporal stages of a language doesn't count, e.g. a word that passed from PIE into Proto-Italic into Latin into Old French into Middle French, and was borrowed into Middle English and survived into modern English, was only borrowed once: otherwise, this becomes just a list of "languages for which we reconstruct, and which we divide up into, the most ancestors".)

• oranye (“orange (color)”) (Indonesian, 8-9 links): from Dutch, from Middle Dutch, from Old French, from Latin, from Old Spanish, from Arabic, from Classical Persian, from Sanskrit, from Dravidian.
• jaabu (“soap”) (Dhuwal, 7 links): from Makasar, from Malay, from Arabic, from Syriac, from Aramaic, from Ancient Greek, from Latin
• cukurs (“sugar”) (Latvian, 7 links): from Livonian, from German, from Latin, from Italian, from Arabic, from Persian, from Sanskrit
• oka (English, 7 links): from Italian, from French, from Turkish, possibly from Arabic, from Classical Syriac, from Greek, from Latin
• शामन (śāman, “shaman”) (Hindi, 7 links): from English, from German, from Russian, from Evenki, from either Tocharian B or Chinese, ultimately (either way) from Pali, from Sanskrit
• カノン (kanon, “cannon”) (Japanese, 7 links): from Dutch, from Middle French, from Italian, from Latin, from Ancient Greek, from Akkadian, from Sumerian.
• キャノン (kyanon, “cannon”) (Japanese, 7 links): from English, from Old French, from Italian, from Latin, from Ancient Greek, from Akkadian, from Sumerian.
• papirosa (English, 6-7 links): from Russian, from Polish, partly from Spanish, and partly from German, from Latin, from Greek, from Egyptian
• rais and raes (“rice”) (Tok Pisin and Bislama, 6+ links): from English, from French, from Italian, from Greek, from Persian/Iranian, from some Eastern source
• cukier (“sugar”) (Polish, 6 links): from German, from Latin, from Italian, from Arabic, from Persian, from Sanskrit
• inkivääri (“ginger”) (Finnish, 6 links): from Swedish, from Low German, from Latin, from Greek, from Middle Indic, from Dravidian/Tamil
• kanava (“canal”) (Finnish, 6 links) from Russian, from Polish, from Italian (inherited from Latin), from Ancient Greek, from Akkadian, from Sumerian
• sokeri (“sugar”) (Finnish, 6 links): from Swedish, from Low German, from Italian, from Arabic, from Persian, from Sanskrit
• shaman (English, 6 links): from German, from Russian, from Evenki, from either Tocharian B or Chinese, ultimately (either way) from Pali, from Sanskrit
• Taigris (“Tigris river”) (Tok Pisin, 6 links): from English, from Latin, from Greek, from Persian, from Elamite, from Sumerian
• オレンジ (orenji, “orange (fruit or color)”) (Japanese, 6 links): from English, from French, from Arabic, from Persian, from Sanskrit, from Dravidian
• burnoose (English, 6 links): from French, from Arabic, from Aramaic, from Greek, from Latin, from Gaulish
• indium (English, 5-6 links): from New Latin, from German, from Spanish, from Greek, from Persian, possibly from the BMAC substrate
• sabre (English, 4-6 links): from French, from German, from Polish, from Hungarian, from perhaps a Turkic language, from perhaps Manchu

• Ancient Greek: λοπαδο­τεμαχο­σελαχο­γαλεο­κρανιο­λειψανο­δριμυ­ποτριμματο­σιλφιο­καραβο­μελιτο­κατακεχυμενο­κιχλε­πικοσσυφο­φαττο­περιστερα­λεκτρυο­νοπτο­κεφαλλιο­κιγκλο­πελειο­λαγῳο­σιραιο­βαφητραγανοπτερύγων (171 characters)
• Thai: กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์ (145 characters)
• German: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (63 characters)

• For the longest words in English, see: Category:Long English words

The above list excludes spellings of sign language terms, the longest of which is in American Sign Language: FlatB@InsideChesthigh-PalmAcross-FlatB@InsideChesthigh-PalmAcross FlatB@InsideTrunkhigh-FlatB@InsideTrunkhigh FlatB@DistalCenterChesthigh-PalmBack-FlatB@NearCenterChesthigh-PalmBack FlatB@DistalCenterTrunkhigh-PalmBack-FlatB@NearCenterTrunkhigh-PalmBack (253 characters).

• TSA (English, 27)
• parse (English, 27)
• stare (English, 27)
• scare (English, 24)
• least (English, 21)
• phrase (English, 20)

Cases where one language repeatedly borrowed the same word from another language.

• Vietnamese borrowed Chinese 卷 (“to roll; a roll”) 8 times: as cuốn, as cuộn, as cuợn, as quận, as quấn, as quyển, as quyền, and as quyến.
• English borrowed Narragansett mishcùp (plural mishcùppaûog) 4 times: as mishcup, as scup, as paugie, and as scuppaug (all names for the porgy, Stenotomus chrysops).

Latin macula made its way into Portuguese at least 7 times:

1. mancha (“stain, mark, spot”) is a regular Portuguese descendant,
2. mágoa (“grief, sorrow”) is another regular descendant,
3. and malha (“stain in animal fur”) is a third regular descendant,
4. while mangra (“mildew”) came (possibly via Spanish) from a reduced Vulgar Latin form macla;
5. meanwhile, malha (“mail”) arrived via French,
6. mácula (“stain, blemish”) was borrowed directly from Latin,
7. and maquis was borrowed via French from Corsican.

Furthermore, macla (“crystal twinning”), which comes from French macle, is of unclear origin; it may derive from macula (“spot”), or it may derive from mascula (“mesh”).

Latin macula also made its way into English at least 5 times:

1. macula (“a spot on skin, the eye, a planet or a moon”) was borrowed directly,
2. macule (“blur or double impression in printing”) (and variant form mackle) came via French macule,
3. mail (“chainmail”) passed through Old French maille (losing the 'c'),
4. macchia (“Mediterranean scrubland”) came via Corsican (losing the 'l')
5. and maquis (“(French) resistance movement”) came via the same Corsican route but with an added detour through French.

Furthermore, macle (“crystal, twin crystal”), which comes from French macle, is of unclear origin; it may derive from macula (“spot”), or it may derive from mascula (“mesh”).

widely borrowed words

• Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ ("gravel, boulder"; in descendants: "sugar") (260 descendants, of which 174 are instances of borrowing)
• Proto-Germanic *saipǭ (“soap”) (201 descendants, mostly through borrowing)
• Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (the source of "tea"; 168 descendants, mostly instances of borrowing)

widely inherited, inherited by a large number of child languages

• Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (191 descendants, mostly instances of inheritance)
• Proto-Bantu *màjíjɪ̀ (94 descendants, mostly instances of inheritance)
• Latin *metipsimus (68 descendants, mostly instances of inheritance)

Terms of more than one character

1. da (Yoruba, 20)
2. here (Middle English, 15)
3. won (Middle English, 15)
4. zꜣ (Egyptian, 15)
5. wane (Middle English, 14)
6. 고비 (gobi) (Korean, 14)
7. 上下 (Japanese, 13)
8. 지대 (jidae) (Korean, 13)
9. 정식 (jeongsik) (Korean, 13)
10. wan (Middle English, 13)
11. chỉ (Vietnamese, 13)
12. bi (Yoruba, 13)
13. -er (English, 12)
14. her (Middle English, 12)
15. tau (Tokelau, 12)
16. sin (Yoruba, 12)
17. 𑜁𑜧 (khaw) (Ahom, 11)
18. 幾許 (Japanese, 11)
19. 사화 (sahwa) (Korean, 11)
20. ta (Yoruba, 11)
21. yọ (Yoruba, 11)
22. con (English, 10)
23. 𑜁𑜩 (khay) (Ahom, 10)
24. ردن (Arabic, 10)
25. لعب (Arabic, 10)
26. 감수 (gamsu) (Korean, 10)
27. brede (Middle English, 10)
28. hure (Middle English, 10)
29. lo (Norwegian Bokmål, 10)
30. 𒋼 (Sumerian, 10)
31. bẹ (Yoruba, 10)
32. ja (Yoruba, 10)
33. re (Yoruba, 10)
34. tọ (Yoruba, 10)
35. dun (English, 9)
36. سر (Urdu, 9)
37. کل (Urdu, 9)
38. 연기 (yeon'gi) (Korean, 9)
39. dag (English, 8)
40. es (Old Irish, 8)
41. lay (English, 8)
42. rout (English, 8)
43. ver (Icelandic, 8)
44. חרש (Hebrew, 8)
45. 食物 (Japanese, 8)
46. 달다 (dalda) (Korean, 8)
47. calão (Portuguese, 7)
48. lease (English, 7)
49. mole (English, 7)
50. peel (English, 7)
51. weer (Dutch, 7)
52. چک (Persian, 7)
53. ܥܪܒܐ (Classical Syriac, 7)
54. ܩܦܠܐ (Classical Syriac, 7)
55. ܩܪܝܬܐ (Classical Syriac, 7)
56. 수도 (sudo) (Korean, 7)
57. 켜다 (kyeoda) (Korean, 7)

Single characters

1. 哈 (Chinese, 18)
2. 私 (Japanese, 17)
3. a (English, 16)
4. 敦 (Chinese, 15)
5. 이 (i) (Korean, 14)
6. a- (English, 11)
7. 靖 (Japanese, 11)
8. 頭 (Japanese, 11)
9. 장 (jang) (Korean, 11)
10. 咪 (Chinese, 10)
11. 賁 / 贲 (Chinese, 10)
12. K (Chinese, 10)
13. Q (Chinese, 10)
14. 平 (Japanese, 10)
15. 가 (ga) (Korean, 10)
16. 전 (jeon) (Korean, 10)
17. 신 (sin) (Korean, 10)
18. 상 (sang) (Korean, 10)
19. 수 (su) (Korean, 10)
20. 요 (yo) (Korean, 10)
21. 양 (yang) (Korean, 10)
22. 柄 (Japanese, 9)
23. 질 (jil) (Korean, 9)
24. -a (English, 8)
25. 守 (Japanese, 8)
26. 尿 (Japanese, 8)
27. 幸 (Japanese, 8)
28. 전 (jeon) (Korean, 8)
29. X (English, 7)
30. 匙 (Japanese, 7)
31. 母 (Japanese, 7)
32. 苧 (Japanese, 7)
33. 말 (mal) (Korean, 7)
34. स (sa) (Sanskrit, 7)

For Japanese and French, only the top 8 per language are listed.

Chinese has not yet been counted.

1. Japanese (35): 庚, 鸛, 公, 爻, 功, 巧, 甲, 交, 行, 劫, 孝, 更, 抗, 効, 幸, 侯, 紅, 香, 候, 校, 貢, 項, 項, 綱, 稿, 蝗, 蝗, 薨, 講, 恋う, 請う, 乞う, 恍, 皎, 斯う
2. Japanese (24): 将官, 小官, 小寒, 小感, 少閑, 小閑, 召喚, 召還, 招喚, 昇官, 荘官, 庄官, 哨艦, 峭寒, 消閑, 商館, 娼館, 掌管, 傷寒, 照鑑, 賞鑑, 霄漢, 償還, 檣竿
3. Japanese (22): 世紀, 正気, 正規, 生気, 生起, 成規, 西紀, 制規, 性器, 青旗, 凄気, 旌旗, 清気, 清奇, 清規, 清暉, 清輝, 盛期, 腥気, 精気, 精機, 精騎
4. Japanese (22): 鍵, けん, 件, 見, 券, 妍, 県, 兼, 剣, 拳, 乾, 険, 嶮, 圏, 間, 腱, 権, 賢, 壎, 塤, 顕, 軒
5. Japanese (21): 亥, イ, 井, 胆, 猪, 豬, 堰, 藺, 伊, 夷, 衣, 医, 易, 威, 胃, 帷, 異, 偉, 意, 緯, 彝
6. Korean (19-20): (낭 (nang) (used only as a syllable?),) 嚢, 囊, 娘, 廊, 曩, 朗, 榔, 浪, 狼, 琅, 瑯, 硠, 稂, 莨, 蜋, 螂, 郎, 郞, 閬
7. Japanese (19): 性徴, 正丁, 正調, 生長, 成長, 成鳥, 声調, 征鳥, 性徴, 青鳥, 政庁, 清帳, 清澄, 清聴, 聖朝, 聖寵, 静聴, 整腸, 整調
8. Japanese (19): 火星, 化生, 化成, 化性, 化政, 火成, 火勢, 加勢, 仮声, 仮性, 河清, 苛性, 苛政, 家世, 家声, 家政, 家勢, 歌声, 歌聖
9. Japanese (19): 蝶, 金魚蝨, 魚蝨, 丁, 庁, 兆, 町, 疔, 長, 帳, 張, 朝, 牒, 腸, 徴, 調, 寵, 鵰, 趙
10. Korean (18): 각 (gak), 刻, 却, 卻, 各, 咯, 埆, 恪, 搉, 擱, 慤, 桷, 殼, 珏, 脚, 覺, 角, 閣
11. French (18): alésai, alésé, alésée, alésées, aléser, alésés, alésez, alézé, alézée, alézées, alézés, allésai, allésé, allésée, allésées, alléser, allésés, allésez
12. French (15): air, aire, airent, aires, airs, ère, ères, erre, errent, erres, ers, haire, haires, hère, hères
13. French (14): dégoutter, dégoûtai, dégoûté, dégoûtée, dégoûtées, dégoûter, dégoûtés, dégoûtez, dégouttai, dégoutté, dégouttée, dégouttées, dégouttés, dégouttez
14. French (13): déjeûnai, déjeûné, déjeuner, déjeûner, déjeûners, déjeûnez, déjeusnai, déjeusné, déjeusnée, déjeusnées, déjeusner, déjeusnés, déjeusnez
15. French (13): compté, comptée, comptées, comptés, comptez, comté, comtés, conté, contée, contées, conter, contés, contez
16. French (12): au, aulx, aux, eau, eaux, haut, hauts, ho, o, ô, oh, os
17. French (12): penser, pansé, pansée, pansées, pansés, panser, pansez, pensé, pensée, pensées, pensés, pensez
18. French (12): tinter, teinté, teintée, teintées, teinter, teintés, tintez, tinté, tintée, tintées, tintés, tintez
19. English (10): Cy, psi, sai, scye, Si, sie, sigh, Sy, xi, Sye

• take (English, 100 senses: 88 verb senses, 12 noun sense)
• set (English, 85 senses)
• go (English, 74 senses: 61 verb and 13 noun senses)
• run (English, 67 senses, including 30 noun senses, 4 adjective senses, 33 verb senses)
• line (English, 40 senses: 36 noun and 12 verb senses)

• a (English): 13: letter, cardinal number, noun, article, preposition, verb, pronoun, 2 different preposition sections, adverb, adjective, symbol, particle, interjection
  • Additionally a- (prefix), A (proper noun), -a (suffix), -a- (interfix and infix) can bring the total number to 18.
• a (Irish): 10: 4 different determiner sections, 4 particle sections, preposition, pronoun
• a (Portuguese): 8: letter, noun, article, pronoun, preposition, interjection, verb, contraction
• a (Old Irish): 6 or 7: article, pronoun, conjunction, determiner, particle, particle (2), preposition
• segundo (Portuguese): 6: noun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, verb

• رَاجِل (rājil) (Arabic, 13)
• جَاهِل (jāhil, “ignorant”) (Arabic, 7) (1 common plural; four masculine plurals; two feminine plurals)
• parashah (English, 7) (different English spellings of three Hebrew pronunciations)
• ذَكَر (ḏakar, “male”) (Arabic, 6)
• Obolus (German, 6)
• rete mirabile (English, 5) (four non-standard Latin plurals)

phonemic

• 龍眼 / 龙眼 (lêng-géng) (Hokkien, 14)
• pecan (English, 10–12)
• quahog (English, at least 10 phonemic pronunciations)
• asphalt (English, 9)
• eschew (English, 8)
• pwn (English, 5 phonemic pronunciations)

phonetic

• ârbro (Franco-Provençal) (185 (some may be repeated more than once))
• háček (English, 10)

(Counting the main/lemma spelling.)

words

1. Old French: iluec (271)
2. English: voivode (64)
3. Middle English: seien (44)
4. Old French: gingembre (43)
5. English: kaymakam (39)
6. English: ambergris (35)
7. English: kinnikinnick (34)
8. Middle English: milwell (34)
9. Portuguese: babaçu (33)
10. English: scion (28)
11. English: Kabballah (26)
12. Portuguese: ambaíba (26)
13. Persian: اسفناج (esfanâj, esfenâj) (26)
14. English: djellaba (24)
15. English: motherfucker (24)
16. English: Sue, Grabbit and Runne (24)
17. Portuguese: signo de Salomão (24)
18. Old French: amiral (22)
19. English: poppadom (22)
20. English: khoomei (21)
21. English: Hanukkah (19)
22. English: whoop-de-doo (19)
23. Armenian: բադրիջան (badriǰan) (18)
24. Chinese: 疙瘩 (18)
25. English: you (17)
26. Asturian: anguaño (17)
27. English: knowledge (16)
28. English: everything (15)
29. English: Portuguese man-of-war (15)
30. English: yarmulke (15)

personal names and related terms

1. English: Muhammad (102)
2. Indonesian: Rizki (68)
3. English: Gaddafi (61)
4. English: Farquhar (28)
5. English: Husayn (26)
6. English: Dostoyevskian (24)
7. Portuguese: Gengis Khan (21)
8. English: Muammar (14)
9. English: Tchaikovsky (11)

• Japanese: 承(うけたまわり) (uketamawari) (6 syllables; 6 morae)
• Japanese: 慮(おもんぱかり) (omonpakari) (5 syllables; 6 morae)
• Japanese: 志(こころざし) (kokorozashi) (5 syllables; 5 morae)
• Japanese: 詔(みことのり) (mikotonori) (5 syllables; 5 morae)
• Japanese: 忝(かたじけな) (katajikena) (5 syllables; 5 morae)
• Japanese: 忇(こうろうがおお) (kōrōgaō) (4 syllables; 7 morae)
• Chinese:   — 招財進寶／招财进宝 (zhāocáijìnbǎo) (single-character version not encoded in Unicode; 4 syllables)

Terms which have translations into the greatest number of languages.

(as of April 15, 2016)

1. water as of 06:43, 20 September 2024 (UTC)
2. woman - as of 03:22, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
3. dog
4. fish
5. rain
6. corpse
7. one
8. fire
9. smoke
10. horse
11. mouth
12. coffee
13. eye
14. sun
15. ear
16. iron
17. butterfly
18. tree
19. four
20. bear
21. father
22. I
23. house
24. language
25. man (2)
26. bee
27. heart
28. book
29. mountain
30. five

• sḏꜣ from the Second Dynasty of Egypt, c. 2690 BCE, quoting what may possibly be the oldest known complete sentence in any language
• 𒄠𒋛 from c. 2nd millennium BCE about animals discussing pooping

citations

• háček (attestation is exceptionally comprehensive)
• ek→ég (continuous attestation begins exceptionally early)

semantic relations

• iron, water (exceptionally many kinds of semantic relations)

Things which are technically correct, but comically phrased, incomplete, etc. Made-up senses and joke entries can go in WT:BJAODN.

• Agrilus: "a genus of boring insects"
• abstème: "refusing to communicate with wine in church"
• cope: "to cover a joint or structure with coping", with the usex "I wanted to become a finish carpenter, but I just couldn't cope"
• trampolo: "not the bird"
• vy-: "a Czech prefix"

English

• alligator (“one who binds”)
• apply (“resembling apples”)
• beer (“one who exists”)
• book (“baked”)
• bullet (“little bull”)
• bunny (“bun-like”)
• canny (“can-like”)
• dang (“dinged”)
• demean (“subtract the mean”)
• drawer (“one who draws”)
• flower (“one that flows”)
• irony (“pertaining to iron”)
• liver (“one who lives”), liver (“more live”)
• luster (“one who lusts”)
• misled (“rained lightly”)
• mister (“a device that makes or sprays mist”)
• mother (“one who catches moths”)
• number (“more numb”)
• outer (“one who outs (someone or something)”)
• peer (“one who pees”)
• pen (“pans”)
• periodic (“relating to the highest oxidation state of iodine”)
• prayer (“one who prays”)
• pimp (“five”)
• pretender (“to tender in advance”)
• remember (“to reconstitute, re-member”)
• sewer (“one who sews”)
• shower (“one who shows”)
• singer (“one who singes”)
• spice (“spouses”)
• teenage (“brushwood”)
• tired (“having tires”)
• undies (“comes back to life”)
• unionize (“to deionize”), unionized (“not ionized”)
• watched (“wearing a watch”)

• a very un-English-looking English word: kthxbye
• a very Klingon-looking non-Klingon word: Q'anjob'al
• surprisingly not the result of keyboard mashing: gjyq
• something which is the result of keyboard-mashing, across two scripts: くぁwせdrftgyふじこlp
• Who needs vowel sounds? Not one Bella Coola speaker, because xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ (“he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant”) .
• an ancient word (attested ~2280 years ago) that looks like an emoji: 𑀇𑀥 ("here")
• a Luxembourgish word with 5 e's in a row: zweeeeëg

• see Category:Ghost words by language

• one time, Wiktionary held a formal WT:VOTE on which kind of ice cream was best; the result (subject to some dispute!) was either "natural strawberry" or "no consensus"
• another time, one admin requested verification of a category, so another admin cited it (the page, originally tagged RFC, later ended up on RFM)
• Category:English terms derived from E (not to be confused with English terms derived from the consumption of E, like thizz); see also Category:U nouns?
• methionyl​threonyl​threonyl​glutaminyl​alanyl​prolyl​threonyl​phenyl​alanyl​threonyl​glutaminyl​prolyl​leucyl​glutaminyl​seryl​valyl​valyl​valyl​leucyl​glutamyl​glycyl​...histidyl​isoleucyl​arginyl​seryl​isoleucine (the full chemical name of titin, which is 189,819 characters long and takes over an hour to pronounce)