There are close to 6,500 spoken languages in the world, roughly 600 of which are widely known, practised or learned. Each language has a unique culture attached to it, which is invariably expressed in its words. A culture has to allot enough importance to an experience to have a unique word for it, thus making them “untranslatable”.
When one talks about untranslatable words, they can be classified into broadly two types of contexts:
i. Translatable contexts: Concepts and ideas that are easily understood across cultures and geographical locations. These are words that may not have a one-word translation, but can be satisfactorily explained in most languages. They usually pertain to simple human emotions, natural phenomena, universal social norms, etc.
ii. Untranslatable contexts: These contexts are more specific to a culture or location that may not even hold any meaning when placed outside of that constraint, becoming very difficult to explain in other languages. Such words usually have a large range of possible meanings that are commonly perceived under multiple headings, or they describe complex, subtle human tendencies, or they are rooted in a specific culture and its norms, which holds no relevance in other contexts.