Sesame in 29 languages: the names buyers and sellers use.
Sesame is one crop with dozens of names, and the name a buyer or a farmer uses decides what they search for, what a statistics table calls it, and occasionally what they think they are buying. This is a reference, with every entry checked against a dictionary.
28 September 2026—5 min read—Sparsh Khullar, Trade & Markets
What is sesame called in other languages?
The table lists the seed of Sesamum indicum in the languages of the countries that grow, process and import it. Where a language has more than one common word, both are given.
| Hindi | तिल · til |
|---|---|
| Urdu | تل · til |
| Gujarati | તલ · tal |
| Marathi | तीळ · tīḷ |
| Bengali | তিল · til |
| Tamil | எள் · eḷ (colloquially எள்ளு, eḷḷu) |
| Hausa | riɗi, often spelt "ridi" without the hooked ɗ |
| Swahili | ufuta |
| Amharic | ሰሊጥ |
| Arabic | سمسم · simsim |
| Turkish | susam |
| Persian | کنجد · konjed |
| Hebrew | שומשום · shumshom (in everyday speech usually סומסום, sumsum) |
| Japanese | 胡麻, usually written ごま or ゴマ · goma |
| Korean | 참깨 · chamkkae (see the note on 깨 below) |
| Chinese | 芝麻 · zhīma |
| Vietnamese | vừng in the north; mè in the centre and south |
| Burmese | နှမ်း · hnan |
| Thai | งา · nga |
| Indonesian | wijen (also bijan) |
| Malay | bijan (also lenga) |
| Russian | кунжут · kunzhut (also сезам, sezam) |
| Polish | sezam |
| Greek | σουσάμι · sousámi (the seed; the plant is σουσαμιά) |
| German | Sesam |
| Dutch | sesam; sesamzaad for the seed |
| French | sésame |
| Spanish | ajonjolí or sésamo |
| Portuguese | gergelim or sésamo |
What do Nigerians call sesame?
In Nigerian English and agricultural writing the crop is often called beniseed (also spelt benniseed, benne or benni). In Hausa, widely spoken across northern Nigeria, it is riɗi. A Nigerian source may therefore discuss the crop as beniseed while the contract in front of you says sesame; in that usage they are the same commodity.
The English word benne is West African in origin. Merriam-Webster gives it as of African origin, akin to Malinke bĕne, and the American Heritage Dictionary gives Wolof and Malinke bene.
Which names cause mistakes?
Four are worth knowing before you search, translate a specification or read a local price report.
- —Korean 깨 (kkae) on its own is generic and can mean sesame or perilla. 참깨 (chamkkae) is sesame specifically. A specification or label translated from Korean should say 참깨.
- —Black seed is not black sesame. Black seed, also called black cumin or kalonji, is Nigella sativa, a plant of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Black sesame is Sesamum indicum, family Pedaliaceae, the same species as white sesame.
- —Hindi तिल (til) also means a mole on the skin, so a search for til can return results about something else entirely. Thai งา (nga) also means tusk or ivory.
- —Simsim is used in English and also in Swahili, but the standard Swahili word is ufuta.
How current is this page?
Every entry was checked on 28 September 2026 against at least one dictionary that glosses the word as sesame or Sesamum indicum, and in most cases two: national dictionaries where they exist (the Turkish Language Association, the Real Academia Española, Korea's National Institute of the Korean Language, Indonesia's KBBI), the University of Chicago's Digital South Asia Library dictionaries for the South Asian languages, and Wiktionary as a cross-check. Yoruba and Igbo are left out because no dictionary source we could check confirmed a word. The plant families are from Kew's Plants of the World Online.
Put this into practice
Send us your specification (grade, quantity, destination, Incoterm) and you will have a formal quotation within 48 hours.
The grades this applies to
Written by
Sparsh Khullar
Director — Trade & Markets
Runs the AgroMax trade desk from India: contracts, documentation and buyer relationships across destination markets. More about the team
Primary sources
Every figure above is tied to the instrument it comes from. These are those instruments, so you can check us rather than take our word for it.
- Merriam-Webster — benne
Etymology: of African origin, akin to Malinke bĕne, sesame.
- Kew, Plants of the World Online — Sesamum indicum L.
Family Pedaliaceae.
- Kew, Plants of the World Online — Nigella sativa L.
Family Ranunculaceae — the black seed that is often confused with black sesame.
- Wiktionary — 깨 (Korean)
Glossed as sesame or perilla; 참깨 is sesame specifically.