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I once came across a word in English that is used to describe the following situation:

When a word in one language means something rude when pronounced the same way in another language. An example could be "kiss" in English which means "Pee" in Swedish.

I've desperately tried to find out what that word is but with no luck.

Can anyone help?

AlessBriel
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  • It's 'false friend' – Mitch Jul 26 '17 at 11:59
  • @Mitch False friends are any words in different languages that are deceptively similar, identical or not. There may be a word to describe the specific subset of false friends where one part is a rude word and the other isn't, but I don't know what it is. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jul 26 '17 at 12:03

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the page "The Funniest Words That Sound Dirty In Other Languages" suggests sordophone.

detergent

GEdgar
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    If you say the title of "this page", and give a summary of what sordophone means, it's +1 from me. Links over time can rot and sites can change their url addresses, so this time next year that link could be worthless. P.S. Good answers are always self-contained. – Mari-Lou A Jul 26 '17 at 12:08
  • It's a nonce word. I just checked, which is fine if the OP is happy with that. – Mari-Lou A Jul 26 '17 at 12:14