Corpse in Malayalam
Police reports and news bulletins call a corpse ശവം (shavam), and so does everyone else in Malayalam. It is said sha-vam. Applied to a living person it becomes an insult, so keep it to its literal sense.
Most common translation
Dead body, corpse; (fig.) clumsy, useless fellow.
ശവം സംസ്കരിക്കാന് നാട്ടുകാര് സഹായിച്ചു
shavam samskarikkaan naattukaar sahaayichu
The villagers helped to perform the corpse's last rites.
All Malayalam words for “corpse”
- ശവം (shavam) — Dead body, corpse; (fig.) clumsy, useless fellow.
- പിണം (pinam) — Corpse, dead body, carcass.
- വിടക്ക് (vidakk) — Corpse, carcass, decay, putrefaction.
- മൃതം (mritham) — One who is dead, death, corpse, poison, life of beggary.
ശവം is the neutral term for a dead body, മൃതം (mritham) is formal and Sanskritic, and പിണം (pinam) and വിടക്ക് (vidakk) suggest a carcass and can sound coarse.
Common questions
How do you say corpse in Malayalam?
Corpse is ശവം (shavam) in Malayalam.
Is there a formal word for a dead body?
മൃതം (mritham) is used in formal and literary Malayalam.