Ukraine Culture: Ukraine Glossary
Ukraine Glossary
A listing of useful Ukraine specific terms and phrases including accommodation, architecture, travel, food and slang words.
A
Aeroport - airport
Apteka - chemists, pharmacy
Avtobus - bus
Avtomat - automatic ticket machine
Avtostantsiya - bus station
B
Babushka - lit. "grandmother" but used for older women in general
Bankomat - ATM
Banya - bathhouse
Bilyet - ticket (Russian)
Borsch - Ukrainian stew
Brynza - feta-like cheese
Budmo - cheers!
Bulvar - boulevard
C
Cholovichy - male toilet
Crimea - peninsula jutting into the northern tip of the Black Sea, now controlled by Russia since 2014
D
Dacha - country house
Devushka - young woman
Dorohy - expensive
E
Elektrychka - suburban train
Euromaidan - name given to the antigovernment protests that in November, 2013
F
G
Gastronom - food shop
H
Haryachy - hot
Hazeta - newspaper
Hetman - Cossack boss
Hora - mountain
Horilka - vodka
Hryvnia - Ukrainian currency
I
Inozemny - foreign
J
K
Kabina - phone center cabin
Karta - map
Kemping - camping
Kino - cinema
Khlib - bread
Kopeck - smallest unit of currency
Kvytok - ticket
Kyiv (Kiev) - Ukraine's capital and largest city
L
Lavra - major monastery
Likar - doctor
Likarnya - hospital
Litak - airplane
Lviv - culturally important city in Ukraine's west near the border with Poland
M
Magazin - shop
Marshrutka - minibus
Mashyna - car
Matryoshka - dolls within dolls
Maydan - square
More - sea
Muzey - museum
N
Naberezhna - promenade
Novy - new
O
Oblast - region
Orange Revolution - series of protests beginning in November 2004 following the disputed election of pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovych as president
P
Palats - palace
Paskha - Easter
Plyazh - beach
Poshta - post office
Posolstvo - embassy
Poyizd - train
Pyvo - beer
R
Rada - parliament
Ratusha - town hall
Rika - river
Rynok - market
S
Sad - garden
Sevastopol - Ukraine’s second-largest port on the Black Sea in Crimea
Shtetl - village
Shvudky poyizd - express train
Snidanok - breakfast
Sobor - cathedral
Stary - old
T
Taksofon - pay telephone
Tatars - Sunni Muslims of Turkic origin that has lived in Crimea since before it became part of Russia
Teatr - theatre
Tramvay - tram
Tserka - church
Tualet - toilet
U
Univermag - department store
Uzviz - slope
V
Vahon - train carriage
Velosyped - bicycle
Verkhovna Rada - aka the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament
Voda - water
Vokzal - station
Vyshyvanka - traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt (pronounced vish-ee-van-ka)
W
Y
Z
Zal - hall, room
Zaliznychny vokzal - train station
Zamok - castle
Zharky - hot weather
Zheton - token (metro)
Zhinochy - women's toilet
Zupnynka - bus stop
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