IbieneThere’s this moment we’ve all had. You’re trying to explain exactly how you feel about something, and the words just… run out. Not because you’re bad with words, but because English genuinely doesn’t have the right one. We’ve all been there. We just never had a name for it. Turns out, other languages already solved this. Someone, somewhere, decided a feeling was common enough, real enough, that it deserved its own word. And honestly, some of the best examples come from African languages. So let’s look at a few of these words together. Think of it less like a vocabulary list and more like that thing where you learn a word and suddenly can’t stop bringing it up with your friends for the next two weeks.
Words for Love and Connection:
Ubuntu (pronounced oo-BUN-too) comes from the Nguni languages of southern Africa, including Zulu and Xhosa. It is often translated loosely as “I am because we are,” though that barely scratches the surface. Ubuntu describes a way of seeing yourself as inseparable from the people around you, your humanity bound up in theirs. A grandmother sharing her last plate of food with a neighbour’s child is living ubuntu, without ever needing to explain why.
Kilig (KEE-lig) is Tagalog, from the Philippines, and describes the fluttering, stomach-flipping thrill of a romantic moment. Think of the seconds after someone you like brushes your hand, or the flush of a message that says more than its words. Filipino friends will tell you kilig is instantly recognisable and almost impossible to fake.
Words for Joy and Belonging:
Harambee (ha-RAHM-bay) is Swahili for “all pull together”. It describes communal effort toward a shared goal: neighbours building a house in a day, a village raising funds for a child’s school fees. Harambee became so central to East African life that it was adopted as Kenya’s national motto, a word turned into a philosophy of collective progress.
Hygge (HOO-gah) is the Danish word that has travelled furthest into English-speaking culture in recent years, though it still resists a clean translation. It describes a cosy, contented atmosphere, candlelight, warm blankets, good company, nowhere else you would rather be. Hygge is less about objects and more about the feeling those objects create.
Words for Longing and Nostalgia:
Saudade (sow-DAH-jee) is Portuguese and perhaps the most famous untranslatable word of all. It describes a deep, melancholic longing for someone or something absent, tinged with love rather than despair. Fado music, Portugal’s soulful traditional genre, was built almost entirely around saudade, turning absence into something beautiful to listen to.
Hiraeth (HEER-eyeth) is Welsh for a homesickness that reaches beyond geography, a longing for a home you may not even be able to return to, or one that no longer exists in the way you remember it. Welsh speakers often describe hiraeth as grief for a place mixed with fierce love for it.
Words for Nature and Quiet Moments:
Komorebi (koh-moh-REH-bee) is Japanese for the dappled sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees, scattering shifting patterns of light and shadow on the ground beneath. There is no single English word for this, only description, yet anyone who has walked through a forest at midday will recognise it instantly.
Waldeinsamkeit (VALT-ein-zahm-kite) is German for the particular feeling of solitude one experiences alone in a forest, a mixture of peace, smallness and connection to nature. German Romantic poets wrote about waldeinsamkeit often, treating solitude in the woods as something closer to spiritual restoration than loneliness.
Words for Anticipation and Small Human Moments:
Iktsuarpok (eekt-soo-AR-pok) comes from the Inuit language and describes the restless anticipation of waiting for someone, the urge to keep checking outside to see if they have arrived yet. It is a word born from Arctic life, where visitors might travel long distances across snow, and waiting itself became worth naming.
Sobremesa (soh-breh-MEH-sah) is Spanish for the time spent lingering at the table after a meal has finished, still talking, still laughing, with no urgency to leave. In much of Spain and Latin America, sobremesa is considered as important as the meal itself, the conversation, and the real reason everyone gathered.
Words for Purpose, Wisdom and Resilience:
Sankofa (sahn-KOH-fah) comes from the Akan people of Ghana, where it is both a word and a symbol, often shown as a bird reaching backward to retrieve an egg from its back. Sankofa teaches that it is not wrong to go back for what you have forgotten, that wisdom sometimes means reclaiming the past in order to move forward well.
Ikigai (ee-kee-GAI) is Japanese for a reason for being: the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can be valued for. Ikigai is not a single grand purpose but something quieter, often found in ordinary daily life and small, consistent joys.
Taken together, these words with no English equivalent tell a quiet, consistent story. Human beings everywhere feel deeply, long for connection, treasure their communities and search for meaning, even when the exact shape of that feeling differs from place to place. Beautiful foreign words like these do not just fill gaps in English. They remind us that no single language could ever hold the whole of human experience. What about you? Is there a word in your own mother tongue that English simply cannot capture? Share it in the comments below. You might be surprised how many people have been searching for that exact word without knowing it existed.
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