10 Words for a Good Life from Other Languages: Hygge, Lagom, Wabi-Sabi, Ubuntu and More

Start hereThe Finnish word sisu began with the body. A 2019 study traced it to sisus, the internal organs, "literally, the guts". Today it means tough, unyielding willpower. Many words for a good life have stories like that. Here are ten.

Many languages have a word for one part of a good life that English says in a phrase. Here are ten of them, from Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Japanese, Italian, French, Costa Rican Spanish, and Zulu and Xhosa. For each one: what dictionaries say it means, where it comes from, how people use it, and one small way to try the idea.

01Comfort, company and enough

Three words for feeling at ease with people, and for having just enough.

1. Hygge (Danish)

Hygge is a Danish word for the cosy, safe feeling that comes from simple things.

The Cambridge Dictionary gives examples such as lighting candles, baking, or spending time at home with your family. According to Copenhagen’s tourism board, the word has roots in Old Norse hyggja, “to think, believe, or be content with”. Citing the Danish Dictionary, the same page says the modern meaning came from Norwegian, where the word took on the sense “to comfort” or “to bring joy”.

Danes use it about people too: someone who is fun to be with can be called a hyggelig fyr. The opposite, uhyggelig, can mean anything from cheerless to sinister.

Is hygge just cosiness? Copenhagen’s tourism board says hygge is usually inadequately translated as cosiness. A 2011 study of Danish middle-class life describes it as commonly experienced as a pleasurable involvement in a social and spatial interior. The same study argues hygge can also act as “a vehicle for social control”. It also noted that comparable social and spatial dynamics unfold in other cultures.

How sure: Moderate the dictionary and Copenhagen’s tourism board agree on the cosy core; one study adds that the shared ideal can also leave people out.

Try this: Plan one evening this week around a warm drink, low light and one person you like.

2. Gezellig (Dutch)

Gezellig is a Dutch word meaning pleasant, enjoyable and cosy.

The Dutch etymological dictionary traces it to gezel, meaning “comrade”, with the ending -ig added. It cites a 1708 use for people who are pleasant to be around. It cites an 1847 use for a place, a “gezellig oord” or cosy spot.

Our reading: with “comrade” at its root, gezellig has company built in. It sits close to hygge, which is often, though not always, about time with other people.

Try this: Next time an evening feels good, notice what made it so: the people, the room, or the time you had.

3. Lagom (Swedish)

Lagom is a Swedish word for the right amount: neither too much nor too little.

The Swedish Academy’s historical dictionary compares it with Old Swedish laghum, “according to the law”. Sweden’s official tourism site says there is no direct English translation, and that lagom roughly means “just the right amount”. The same site presents it as “a uniquely Swedish concept that embraces balance, moderation and contentment”.

That second line is a tourism board’s description. The Swedish Academy’s dictionary defines lagom as a fitting amount, and its historical dictionary also gives the sense moderation.

Try this: Pick one thing you tend to overdo, such as news or coffee, and try a lagom amount for a week.

02Outdoors and persistence

Two Nordic words: one for time in nature, one for the strength to keep going.

4. Friluftsliv (Norwegian)

Friluftsliv is a Norwegian word for being outdoors, especially in woods and fields, to unwind or to exercise.

Norway’s national encyclopedia says Henrik Ibsen probably first used the word, in his 1859 poem “På vidderne”. It defines friluftsliv as non-motorised travel, stays and activities in nature, done for recreation. It adds that the right to walk, stay and harvest in nature is set out in Norway’s outdoor recreation law of 1957, best known as allemannsretten.

Is it a uniquely Norwegian thing? The encyclopedia says friluftsliv is often seen as typically Norwegian, but is practised in different ways in many countries and cultures. So the word is Norwegian, while the habit is widely shared.

Try this: Walk somewhere green this week with no headphones and no goal, just to be outside.

5. Sisu (Finnish)

Sisu is a Finnish word for tough, unyielding willpower, persistence and courage.

A 2019 study traced the word to sisus, the internal organs of a body, “literally, the guts”. It says sisu originally referred to a negative quality, as in pahansisuinen, “bad-spirited”. According to the study, sisu was lifted to an elevated status during the Winter War of 1939 to 1940. The standard Finnish dictionary still lists a second sense: a person’s nature or temper, often a fierce or bad one.

In a survey, the 2019 study found sisu is invoked by adversity and is more about finding energy in the moment than about long-term endurance. The study adds that it is less about conscious willing than a strength people feel in the body. Sisu can cut both ways. A 2025 study collected data from 82 knowledge workers in four Finnish organisations. It linked harmful sisu to accepting overly challenging tasks and getting stuck on unproductive activities.

Our reading: persistence helps most when it is aimed at the right task.

Try this: Next time you hit a wall, ask whether pushing on is moving you forward, or keeping you stuck.

03Beauty, rest and joy

Three words for beauty in imperfect things, the pleasure of doing nothing, and joy in being alive.

6. Wabi-sabi (Japanese)

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese idea of finding beauty in simple things that are old, imperfect or do not last.

It joins two words. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Japanese aesthetics glosses wabi as “subdued, austere beauty” and sabi as “rustic patina”. On the wabi aesthetic, the entry says, a broken or cracked utensil that has been well repaired is often valued more highly than an intact one. It says the wabi aesthetic “does not imply asceticism but rather moderation”. The entry adds that wabi is most fully developed in the art of tea and the context of Zen. Sabi, it says, later seems to take on the meaning of something that has aged well, and another word pronounced sabi means “rust”.

Our reading: wear and repair can add to a thing’s value rather than take away from it.

Try this: Keep using one worn or mended thing you like, and notice whether it feels more yours.

7. Dolce far niente (Italian)

Dolce far niente is an Italian saying for a state of happy, carefree idleness.

Italy’s Treccani dictionary calls it a proverbial expression. It lists it under dolce in the sense of pleasant, something that gives a welcome feeling.

Our reading: the phrase treats rest as something to enjoy, not something to earn.

Try this: Set aside fifteen minutes this week to do nothing on purpose, with your phone in another room.

8. Joie de vivre (French)

Joie de vivre means a feeling of great happiness and pleasure in life.

English took the phrase from French, where it literally means “joy of living”. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “a feeling of great happiness and enjoyment of life”.

Our reading: it names a mood more than a practice, so it is easier to notice than to plan.

Try this: Write down the last time you felt it, and what you were doing at the time.

04Living with others

Two words used between people: an everyday greeting and an idea of community.

9. Pura vida (Costa Rican Spanish)

In Costa Rica, pura vida is an everyday, informal way of saying “very well”.

The Spanish Royal Academy’s dictionary also lists it for a pleasant, friendly person. It can describe a good or pleasant thing too. In one 2018 study, the author recorded 363 uses of the phrase. Of those, 43% were a greeting or a farewell. The study describes it as an expression that has come to represent Costa Rica itself.

Where does it come from? The study says one common theory traces it to a 1956 Mexican film called Pura Vida. It cites a University of Costa Rica researcher who says the phrase from the film caught on in Costa Rica in the 1980s. The study also says it is probably not possible to pinpoint the origin for certain.

How sure: Limited the film is one common theory, and the study itself says the origin probably cannot be pinned down.

Our reading: a greeting can carry an outlook. The words you use every day shape how a day sounds.

Try this: Notice the greetings you use most, and what mood each one sets.

10. Ubuntu (Zulu and Xhosa)

Ubuntu is the idea that people are not only individuals but live in a community and must share things and care for each other.

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary marks it as South African English. The word comes from Xhosa and Zulu. A chief justice of South Africa, quoted in a 2013 study of judges’ views on ubuntu, said ubuntu is regularly expressed by the Zulu phrase umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which has been tentatively translated as “a person is a person through other people”. South Africa’s interim Constitution of 1993 spoke of “a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation”. That study calls this the first time in South Africa’s modern history that a traditional African concept entered the state’s official law. The study notes that the 1996 Constitution made no express mention of ubuntu.

The same study says it is often noted that ubuntu resists easy definition. It quotes Constitutional Court justice Yvonne Mokgoro, who wrote in 1998 that ubuntu, like many African concepts, “is not easily definable”.

Our reading: ubuntu says who you are depends partly on the people around you.

Try this: Think of one person whose help shaped who you are, and tell them.

05What “untranslatable” means here

Each word can be described in a sentence, though some, like ubuntu, are said to resist easy definition. What English lacks is a single word that matches.

Etymology, the study of where words come from, is how the dictionaries above trace each one. When English takes a word from another language, as it did with joie de vivre and hygge, it becomes a loanword.

One wellbeing researcher has collected such words, described as ones that do not have a direct English translation. A 2016 paper by Tim Lomas collected 216 such words, and a 2019 study notes that sisu is one of them.

Here, “untranslatable” means “no one-word match”, not “impossible to explain”. Two sources above also show these habits are not limited to one country. The hygge study found comparable dynamics in other cultures. Norway’s encyclopedia says outdoor life is practised in many countries.

How sure: Moderate the sources we read for hygge, lagom and sisu say there is no direct English translation; for ubuntu, one study notes it resists easy definition. How much a longer explanation loses is a matter of judgement.

06Four words we cover elsewhere

These four often turn up in the same lists, and each has its own page here.

• Ikigai (Japanese) is a word for something that makes life worth living. Our ikigai page covers it, and Older Than You Think tells where the four-circle chart comes from.
• Eudaimonia (ancient Greek) is the word usually translated happiness, and it is often translated flourishing as well as happiness. See what makes a good life.
• Ataraxia (ancient Greek) is Epicurus’s word for the untroubled mind, usually translated “tranquillity”. See our Epicurus page and Stoicism vs Epicureanism.
• Amor fati (Latin) is a phrase from Nietzsche’s The Gay Science (1882), not a Stoic one, though Marcus Aurelius had told himself to love what fate brings. Older Than You Think has the full story.

07Where to learn more

• Our guide to why ways of life matter looks at how daily life differs from place to place.
• What makes a good life compares how the great traditions answered the question.
• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on Japanese aesthetics goes much deeper into wabi, sabi and related ideas.
• Store norske leksikon on friluftsliv (in Norwegian) covers its history and the right to roam.

08Quick answers

09Use this

10Quick quiz

How we checked this · Last checked November 2026

• We read each dictionary entry ourselves, in English and in the word's own language where a dictionary was online.
• The Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish dictionaries load only in a normal browser, so we read them there.
• The Danish Dictionary's own site and the 2016 Lomas paper were blocked to our reader, so we report them only through the sources that cite them.
• The four words in the last section reuse the wording of our pages that cover them.

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