Beautiful Words in Urdu

Hello and welcome to our list of beautiful words in Urdu.

During my research on Urdu, it was clear early on that Urdu is seen as a language of love, beauty and poetry – and this comes through clearly in the words that people have listed as beautiful or as their favourites. This list is full of expressive and descriptive words, with artful, rhythmic names for emotions and natural phenomena.

Urdu is closely related to Hindi, sharing the same Indic base. They are extremely similar, sharing an almost identical phonology and grammar. There are about 104 million speakers (including native speakers and those who speak it as a second language). Urdu is greatly influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit, with an estimate of 99% of Urdu verbs having a Sanskrit or Prakrit root. It’s largely spoken in India and Pakistan, and also has hundreds of thousands of speakers in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and the United States. It might be one of the more difficult languages for a native English speaker to learn, considering that the alphabet is entirely unfamiliar and so is the reading direction – right to left, rather than left to right.

List of Beautiful Words in Urdu

  • goya (n.) the momentary suspension of disbelief when a story is so realistic that it temporarily becomes reality.
  • lehja (n.) pronunciation; a certain style or way of speaking
  • ghayrat (n.) self-respect
  • nawaasizh (n.) goodwill, benevolence, kindness
  • naz (n.) the pride that comes from the knowledge that you are loved no matter what you do.
  • noor (n.) radiance
  • seher (n.) morning
  • qurbat (n.) in close proximity; near
  • falsafa (n.) philosophy
  • ikhlaas (n.) sincerity, earnestness
  • moutjza (n.) a miracle
  • nazakat (adj.) delicacy; precision
  • shabab (n.) youth
  • ruhaniyat (adj.) spirit, soulfulness
  • hawa (n.) wind
  • taabiir (n.) dream interpretation
  • pyaari (adj.) lovely
  • lihaaz (n.) respect
  • duniya (n.) world
  • qainaat (n.) universe
  • inaayat (n.) blessing
  • ikhtiyar (n.) power
  • aabshaar (n.) waterfall
  • justuju (n.) quest, journey; a mission
  • raqs (v.) dance
  • mukhtalif (adj.) different
  • hassee (n.) laughter
  • takjayyul (n.) imagination
  • zameer (n.) conscience
  • mukhtalif (n.) diversity
  • shagufta (adj.) blooming
  • hassmuk (adj.) cheerful
  • sifar (n.) nothingness
  • tabassum (n.) smile
  • aashnaa (n.) companion; friend
  • bijil (n.) lightning
  • zia (n.) light
  • uns (n.) love
  • aaftaab (n.) sun
  • sehar (n.) dawn
  • soraiyya (n.) galaxy
  • nazar (n.) sight
  • justajoo (n.) longing
  • hayat (n.) life
  • sukoon (n.) peace
  • ilm (n.) knowledge
  • jhaga (n.) space
  • kahaani (n.) story
  • khwabeeda (adj.) dreamy; dream-like
  • aahista (adj.) gently
  • aazaadi (n.) freedom
  • raaz (n.) secret; mystery
  • sada (n.) an echo
If you’d like to learn more about the beautiful Urdu language, you can find heaps of comprehensive info at omniglot.com, BBC, Babbel and FluentU. You can even start learning the language from these websites, as they have great learning plans to start you off. To help out even more, Babbel and FluentU also have podcasts filled with interesting Urdu words for you to listen to. If you’re happy to enjoy beautiful Urdu words casually and don’t yet need or want to study Urdu grammar, pronunciation, or syntax, then you can have a look at Quora, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Listography. You can also use Google Translate if you’d like to have a look at an Urdu translation of a specific word.

These beautiful Urdu words were inspired from many different sources – Reddit, Quora, Pinterest, Tumblr, Listography, BBC, and Babbel. While I look at different books, articles, songs, websites and any other media I can think of to get inspiration for these lists, I am careful to write the meanings by myself, so if you find other things on the internet that look too similar for comfort, that’s unintentional – please let me know and I’ll get on it as soon as I can. I tried to focus only on words with sounds and meanings that might be considered beautiful and there were many that didn’t make the cut – so if you like this list, journey out to those sources and see if you find any other words you like. If you know of a good resource for studying or learning Urdu and you’d like to share, feel free.

If you’ve gone through this list and noticed that I’ve misspelled a word or bungled a meaning, please get in touch and let me know. I also welcome any new word suggestions or ideas for word lists – so if you’ve got any of those, come at me with them.

Otherwise, thank you very much for visiting, have an excellent week, and have safe travels on the internet <3