Ocean in Malayalam
Ocean and sea are both കടല് (kadal) in everyday Malayalam, the word any child in a coastal town grows up with. It is short, two syllables, and serves for everything from the water off Kochi to the Indian Ocean.
Sea, ocean.
ഇന്ന് രാവിലെ കടല് ശാന്തമാണ്
innu raavile kadal shaanthamaanu
This morning the sea is calm.
All Malayalam words for “ocean”
- കടല് (kadal) — Sea, ocean.
- അബ്ധി (abdhi) — Sea, ocean.
- ആഴി (azhi) — Sea, ocean, burning fire, pyre, pond, ring.
- സമുദ്രം (samudram) — Sea, ocean.
- കടൽ (kadal) — Sea. The sea or ocean.
- പാരിജാതം (parijatham) — A divine tree (got from the ocean of milk when it was being churned by the Devas (gods) and Asuras according to Hindu mythology), a tree with fragrant flowers, fragrance.
- പാലാഴി (palazhi) — Ocean of milk.
കടല് (kadal) is the everyday word, സമുദ്രം (samudram) its formal Sanskrit counterpart used in names and geography, അബ്ധി (abdhi) and ആഴി (azhi) are poetic, പാലാഴി (palazhi) is the mythological ocean of milk, and പാരിജാതം (parijatham) is a tree that only turns up in that same story.
Common questions
How do you say ocean in Malayalam?
കടല് (kadal) is the normal word for both sea and ocean.
Does Malayalam distinguish sea from ocean?
Not in ordinary speech, where kadal does both. In geography writing the formal സമുദ്രം (samudram) appears in the names of oceans.