Greek Vocabulary

You already know more Greek than you think

Before diving into new vocabulary, it's worth pausing on a genuine advantage English speakers have with Greek that doesn't exist with most other language pairs: English has borrowed an enormous number of words either directly from Greek or through Greek roots used in scientific and academic vocabulary. Words like "democracy" (δημοκρατία, dimokratía), "philosophy" (φιλοσοφία, filosofía), "telephone" (τηλέφωνο, tiléfono), "photograph" (φωτογραφία, fotografía), and "geography" (γεωγραφία, geografía) aren't just similar to their Greek originals — in several cases they're close to identical once you can read the Greek script. This means that a meaningful chunk of Greek's more formal and technical vocabulary is far easier to acquire than equivalent vocabulary in, say, Japanese or Arabic, simply because your brain already has a hook to hang it on.

This advantage is strongest with abstract, academic, and scientific words, and weakest with everyday, concrete words — the stuff of daily conversation like "table", "tired", or "yesterday" tends to come from Greek's older, native vocabulary rather than the roots that made their way into English, so you can't lean on cognates for most of the vocabulary you'll need for basic conversation. But it's a genuine head start worth exploiting for the vocabulary it does cover, and it's a good reminder that Greek is not the totally alien language it can appear to be at first glance.

How to actually memorise Greek words

Before the word lists, a few techniques that make a real difference in how efficiently new vocabulary sticks, particularly given Greek's unfamiliar script.

Learn words with their article, not alone

As covered in Greek Grammar, every noun has a gender that isn't predictable from meaning alone. If you learn "table" as τραπέζι and only later try to recall its gender, you're doing twice the memory work for no benefit. Learn it as το τραπέζι from the very first encounter, so the gender is baked into the word from day one rather than bolted on afterwards.

Group words by theme, not alphabetically

Alphabetical word lists are how dictionaries are organised for lookup, not how human memory actually files information. You'll retain new words far better if you learn them in thematic clusters — all the kitchen words together, all the family words together — because your brain builds associative links between words used in the same context, and those links become retrieval cues later. This is why the lists below are organised by theme rather than by starting letter.

Use spaced repetition rather than one long cram session

Vocabulary retention research consistently shows that reviewing a word multiple times with increasing gaps between reviews (a day later, then three days later, then a week later, and so on) produces dramatically better long-term retention than reviewing the same word ten times in one sitting. This is the entire logic behind flashcard systems — if you're using Rizes Hub's flashcards, build a Greek vocabulary deck from these lists and let the spaced repetition schedule do the heavy lifting rather than trying to force-memorise a list in one go.

Attach a mental image or story to abstract words

Concrete nouns (chair, dog, bread) are naturally easy to visualise and therefore easy to remember. Abstract words and function words (prepositions, conjunctions) don't have an obvious image, so they're harder to retain through pure repetition alone. A trick that works well for many learners is to invent a small, slightly absurd mental image linking the sound of the Greek word to its meaning — the sillier and more vivid the image, the more memorable it tends to be, because vivid or unusual associations are simply easier for the brain to retrieve later than plain repetition.

Core vocabulary by theme

Family

• η οικογένεια (i ikoyénia) — the family
• ο πατέρας / ο μπαμπάς (o patéras / o babás) — father / dad
• η μητέρα / η μαμά (i mitéra / i mamá) — mother / mum
• ο γιος (o yos) — son
• η κόρη (i kóri) — daughter
• ο αδελφός (o adelfós) — brother
• η αδελφή (i adelfí) — sister
• ο παππούς (o papús) — grandfather
• η γιαγιά (i yayá) — grandmother
• ο σύζυγος / η σύζυγος (o/i sízigos) — husband / wife

Food and drink

• το φαγητό (to fayitó) — food
• το νερό (to neró) — water
• ο καφές (o kafés) — coffee
• το ψωμί (to psomí) — bread
• το τυρί (to tirí) — cheese
• το κρέας (to kréas) — meat
• το ψάρι (to psári) — fish
• τα λαχανικά (ta lachaniká) — vegetables
• το φρούτο (to frúto) — fruit
• το κρασί (to krasí) — wine

Around the house

• το σπίτι (to spíti) — house
• το δωμάτιο (to domátio) — room
• η κουζίνα (i kuzína) — kitchen
• το μπάνιο (to bánio) — bathroom
• το κρεβάτι (to krebáti) — bed
• η καρέκλα (i karékla) — chair
• το τραπέζι (to trapézi) — table
• η πόρτα (i pórta) — door
• το παράθυρο (to paráthiro) — window
• το κλειδί (to klidí) — key

Time and calendar

• σήμερα (símera) — today
• αύριο (ávrio) — tomorrow
• χθες (chthes) — yesterday
• η ώρα (i óra) — the hour / time
• η εβδομάδα (i evdomáda) — the week
• ο μήνας (o mínas) — the month
• ο χρόνος (o chrónos) — the year
• το πρωί (to proí) — morning
• το απόγευμα (to apóyevma) — afternoon
• το βράδυ (to vrádi) — evening

Common adjectives

• καλός / καλή / καλό (kalós/kalí/kaló) — good
• κακός / κακή / κακό (kakós/kakí/kakó) — bad
• μεγάλος / μεγάλη / μεγάλο (megálos/megáli/megálo) — big
• μικρός / μικρή / μικρό (mikrós/mikrí/mikró) — small
• όμορφος / όμορφη / όμορφο (ómorfos/ómorfi/ómorfo) — beautiful
• νέος / νέα / νέο (néos/néa/néo) — new / young
• παλιός / παλιά / παλιό (paliós/paliá/palió) — old
• εύκολος / εύκολη / εύκολο (éfkolos/éfkoli/éfkolo) — easy
• δύσκολος / δύσκολη / δύσκολο (dískolos/dískoli/dískolo) — difficult
• γρήγορος / γρήγορη / γρήγορο (grígoros/grígori/grígoro) — fast

Notice that each adjective here is listed in all three gender forms, reinforcing the agreement rule from Greek Grammar — learning adjectives this way from the start avoids having to retrofit the pattern later.

High-frequency verbs

• είμαι (íme) — to be
• έχω (écho) — to have
• κάνω (káno) — to do / to make
• πάω (páo) — to go
• έρχομαι (érchome) — to come
• θέλω (thélo) — to want
• μπορώ (boró) — to be able to / can
• ξέρω (kséro) — to know (a fact)
• βλέπω (vlépo) — to see
• μιλάω (miláo) — to speak

Colours

• κόκκινο (kókino) — red
• μπλε (ble) — blue
• πράσινο (prásino) — green
• κίτρινο (kítrino) — yellow
• μαύρο (mávro) — black
• άσπρο / λευκό (áspro / lefkó) — white
• καφέ (kafé) — brown
• γκρι (gri) — grey

Weather and seasons vocabulary

• ο ήλιος (o ílios) — the sun
• η βροχή (i vrochí) — the rain
• το κρύο (to krío) — the cold
• η ζέστη (i zésti) — the heat
• ο άνεμος (o ánemos) — the wind
• το χιόνι (to chióni) — the snow
• συννεφιά (sinefiá) — cloudy

Feelings and emotions

Emotion vocabulary is genuinely useful early on, since expressing how you feel comes up constantly and is one of the first areas where beginners want to move beyond simple "good/bad" answers.

• χαρούμενος / χαρούμενη (charúmenos/charúmeni) — happy
• λυπημένος / λυπημένη (lipiménos/lipiméni) — sad
• κουρασμένος / κουρασμένη (kurasménos/kurasméni) — tired
• νευριασμένος / νευριασμένη (nevriasménos/nevriasméni) — annoyed
• ενθουσιασμένος / ενθουσιασμένη (enthusiasménos/enthusiasméni) — excited
• αγχωμένος / αγχωμένη (anchoménos/anchoméni) — anxious / stressed

Notice these all follow adjective agreement, taking the masculine -ος or feminine -η ending depending on who's describing themselves, consistent with the agreement pattern covered in Greek Grammar.

English words that are already Greek

Beyond the obvious academic borrowings mentioned earlier, English is full of everyday words with Greek roots once you start noticing them, and recognising these can turn vocabulary acquisition into pattern-spotting rather than pure memorisation.

Once this pattern clicks, encountering an unfamiliar but complex-looking Greek word often becomes less intimidating than encountering an unfamiliar simple one — you may well already have a partial handle on its meaning from an English cognate, even though the everyday word for "chair" or "spoon" gives you nothing to work with at all.

False friends: words that look similar but aren't

Cognates cut both ways, and Greek has a handful of words that look deceptively like English words but mean something different, which can trip up learners who over-rely on similarity.

• η συμπάθεια (simbáthia) looks like "sympathy" but more often means "fondness" or "affection" in casual use, not sympathy for someone's misfortune.
• η ενέργεια (enérgia) looks like "energy" and does mean that, but is also used in contexts English wouldn't use "energy" for — such as certain legal or administrative "actions".
• το πλάνο (pláno), borrowed from English "plan", is used more narrowly in Greek, often specifically for a business or project plan rather than any general plan.

These aren't common enough to worry about extensively as a beginner, but it's worth knowing false friends exist so you don't automatically trust every resemblance you spot.

Numbers beyond ten

Once you know 1–10 from Greek for Beginners, the pattern for higher numbers is largely predictable and worth learning as a system rather than a long memorised list.

• έντεκα (éndeka) — 11, δώδεκα (dódeka) — 12, then δεκατρία (dekatría, "ten-three") — 13 through δεκαεννέα (dekaennéa) — 19, following a "ten + digit" pattern.
• είκοσι (íkosi) — 20, τριάντα (triánda) — 30, σαράντα (saránda) — 40, πενήντα (penínda) — 50, εξήντα (eksínda) — 60, εβδομήντα (evdomínda) — 70, ογδόντα (ogdónda) — 80, ενενήντα (enenínda) — 90.
• εκατό (ekató) — 100, χίλια (chília) — 1,000, εκατομμύριο (ekatomírio) — one million.

Compound numbers like 21 or 45 are built by simply joining the tens word and the units word with και (and): είκοσι ένα (twenty-one), σαράντα πέντε (forty-five) — a far more transparent system than English's occasional irregularities.

Days, months, and seasons

• Δευτέρα (Deftéra) — Monday, Τρίτη (Tríti) — Tuesday, Τετάρτη (Tetárti) — Wednesday, Πέμπτη (Pémpti) — Thursday, Παρασκευή (Paraskeví) — Friday, Σάββατο (Sávato) — Saturday, Κυριακή (Kiriakí) — Sunday.
• η άνοιξη (i ánixi) — spring, το καλοκαίρι (to kalokéri) — summer, το φθινόπωρο (to fthinóporo) — autumn, ο χειμώνας (o chimónas) — winter.

Connector words that hold sentences together

A small set of connecting words does a disproportionate amount of work in making your Greek sound like connected speech rather than a string of disconnected simple sentences. These are worth learning early and using deliberately.

• και (ke) — and
• αλλά / όμως (allá / ómos) — but
• γιατί (yatí) — because (also "why", as noted earlier — context distinguishes them)
• επειδή (epidí) — because (used specifically to introduce a reason, less ambiguous than γιατί)
• αν (an) — if
• όταν (ótan) — when
• μετά (metá) — after / then
• πριν (prin) — before
• επίσης (epísis) — also
• όμως (ómos) — however

Common idiomatic expressions

Beyond individual words, a handful of fixed expressions appear constantly in everyday Greek and are worth learning as complete units rather than trying to derive their meaning from the individual words.

• Ό,τι να 'ναι. (óti na 'ne) — "Whatever happens" / "It's fine, don't worry about it" — a very common, slightly resigned expression of acceptance.
• Δεν πειράζει. (den pirázi) — "It doesn't matter" / "No worries" — used constantly to wave off a minor problem or apology.
• Σιγά σιγά. (sigá sigá) — literally "slowly slowly" — meaning "little by little" or "gradually", used both for physical pace and for processes taking time.
• Καλή όρεξη! (kalí órexi) — "Enjoy your meal" — said before eating, equivalent to the French "bon appétit".
• Και του χρόνου! (ke tu chrónu) — literally "and of the year" — said on birthdays and anniversaries, meaning "may we celebrate this again next year".

Vocabulary for immediate practical use

If your motivation includes an upcoming trip, a smaller, immediately practical vocabulary set is worth prioritising ahead of the broader thematic lists above — the full detail lives in Travel Greek, but the essentials worth knowing regardless of your overall study plan include numbers for prices, πόσο κάνει; (póso káni?, how much is it?), πού είναι...; (pu íne...?, where is...?), and the names of common foods you're likely to order. Learning this small practical set alongside the broader thematic vocabulary means you're not left with excellent grammar knowledge and no ability to actually order a coffee.

Building vocabulary through reading, not just lists

Word lists are an efficient way to front-load high-frequency vocabulary, but they're not how vocabulary acquisition sustains itself long-term. Once you've worked through the thematic lists above, the more durable strategy is extensive reading and listening at a level just slightly above your current comfort zone — simple news articles, children's books, subtitled shows — where you encounter new words in context repeatedly, rather than as isolated flashcards. Context does two things a list can't: it shows you how a word actually behaves in a sentence (which preposition follows it, which case it triggers, how formal or casual it sounds), and it naturally repeats high-frequency words often enough that you absorb them without deliberately drilling them.

A practical habit: when reading, resist the urge to look up every single unfamiliar word. If you understand roughly 90% of a passage from context, that's a good difficulty level — look up the words that keep reappearing or that block your understanding of the whole sentence, and let the rest go. Words worth looking up will show up again; words that don't reappear probably weren't worth the interruption in the first place.

Where vocabulary connects to the rest of Learn Greek

Vocabulary and grammar develop best in tandem rather than in sequence — new words are more memorable once you can slot them into a grammatical pattern you already know, which is why it's worth keeping Greek Grammar open alongside this guide rather than finishing one before starting the other. Once you're comfortable saying new words out loud, Greek Pronunciation covers the specific sounds that most often get mispronounced by English speakers, several of which appear repeatedly in the word lists above. And vocabulary that only exists on a flashcard isn't fully learned — Greek Conversation is where these words get tested in real exchanges, which is ultimately the point of learning them at all.