Dovahzul Dictionary — Common Skyrim Dragon Language Words by Category

Quick Answer: Dovahzul, the dragon language of Skyrim, has only about 40 words officially translated by Bethesda — all shout words revealed at Word Walls — plus scattered dialogue and book vocabulary. The fan community at thuum.org has expanded this into a few-hundred-word dictionary. Below, vocabulary organized by category: shouts and combat, dragons and named beings, the Thu'um system, common nouns, and greetings — with every entry marked as either Bethesda-official or community-sourced. For a shorter flat list focused on the most iconic phrases, see Dovahzul words and phrases.

Dovahzul doesn't have a "dictionary" the way English or even Klingon does. There is no single credited author, no standalone published wordbook, and no complete grammar — it emerged from Bethesda's Skyrim (2011) design team as a functional in-game system built around the Thu'um shout mechanic, where each unlocked word arrives with its own official in-game translation.

That means the confirmed vocabulary is genuinely small — around 40 shout words, plus a handful of terms from dialogue, books, and location names. Everything beyond that comes from the long-running fan project at thuum.org, which has methodically cataloged every attested word and proposed grammar rules to connect them. This reference draws on both sources and labels which is which, the same honest-sourcing approach we use for our Klingon and Elvish dictionaries.

If you want the short version focused on the most iconic lines, see Dovahzul words and phrases. If you're just here for the flat list of shout translations, keep reading — they're organized by category below.

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How to read this dictionary

Each entry is formatted:

English — Dovahzul (pronunciation) — source note

Words are marked (Bethesda canon) when they come directly from the game's own translated Magic menu, dialogue subtitles, or in-game books. Words marked (community-sourced) come from thuum.org's dictionary and grammar project — careful, well-regarded fan scholarship, but not an official Bethesda translation. We flag every one so you never mistake fan reconstruction for canon, the same policy we apply across every conlang dictionary on this site.

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The Thu'um and shout system

The organizing concept of Dovahzul as most players encounter it: every shout (Thu'um) is built from three words, each unlocked individually at a Word Wall.

Shout / Voice — Thu'um (THOOM) — (Bethesda canon) names both the act of shouting and the broader "Way of the Voice" tradition Word Wall — no distinct in-game Dovahzul term; the walls themselves bear inscriptions in dragon script but are referred to in English even by in-universe characters Dragon script — the written form of Dovahzul, a logographic system where each word has a unique glyph rather than a phonetic alphabet Word of Power — the English game term for each individual shout-word component; Dovahzul itself has no separate attested noun for the concept distinct from the words themselves

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Unrelenting Force (the most iconic shout)

Force — Fus (FOOS) — (Bethesda canon) Balance — Ro (ROH) — (Bethesda canon) Push / Away — Dah (DAH) — (Bethesda canon)

Together: Fus Ro Dah, the first shout the Dragonborn learns, and the single most quoted line in the game's history.

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Elemental and combat shout words

Fire — Yol (YOHL) — (Bethesda canon), from Fire Breath Inferno — Toor (TOHR) — (Bethesda canon), from Fire Breath Sun — Shul (SHOOL) — (Bethesda canon), from Fire Breath Frost — Fo (FOH) — (Bethesda canon), from Frost Breath Cold — Krah (KRAH) — (Bethesda canon), from Frost Breath Freeze — Diin (DEEN) — (Bethesda canon), from Frost Breath Slay — Krii (KREE) — (Bethesda canon), from Marked for Death Mortal — Joor (JOOR) — (Bethesda canon), from Dragonrend — used in the pivotal quest shout that strips a dragon's immortal nature, forcing it to the ground Whirlwind — Wuld (WOOLD) — (Bethesda canon), from Whirlwind Sprint Storm — Strun (STROON) — (Bethesda canon), from Storm Call Time — Tiid (TEED) — (Bethesda canon), from Slow Time Slow — Klo (KLOH) — (Bethesda canon), from Slow Time Fade — Feim (FAYM) — (Bethesda canon), from Become Ethereal Spirit — Zii (ZEE) — (Bethesda canon), from Become Ethereal Flesh — Gron (GROHN) — (Bethesda canon), from Become Ethereal Life — Laas (LAHS) — (Bethesda canon), from Aura Whisper Seek — Yah (YAH) — (Bethesda canon), from Aura Whisper

Note: many shouts have a third word whose in-game gloss is less consistently isolated from the shout's overall effect description than the words above — where the community dictionary at thuum.org proposes a specific reading, we've labeled those entries (community-sourced) rather than presenting them as direct Bethesda canon.

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Dragons and named beings

Dragon — Dov / Dovah (DOH-vah) — (Bethesda canon) — the most productive root in the language Dragonborn — Dovahkiin (doh-vah-KEEN) — (Bethesda canon) — literally "dragon" + "-born"; the player character's title Dragon Tongue / Dragon Language — Dovahzul (doh-vah-ZOOL) — (Bethesda canon) — the name of the language itself I / me — Zu'u (ZOO) — (Bethesda canon) — used by dragons referring to themselves in dialogue, notably Paarthurnax and Alduin You — Hi (HEE) — (community-sourced, thuum.org) — proposed reading based on dialogue patterns Alduin — proper name of the World-Eater dragon; widely discussed by the thuum.org community as an ancient compound rather than a modern Dovahzul construction — treat any literal breakdown as fan etymology, not Bethesda-confirmed Paarthurnax — proper name of the dragon who mentors the Dragonborn atop the Throat of the World; likewise a proper name whose component etymology is community-proposed, not officially glossed word-by-word Odahviing — proper name of a dragon the Dragonborn can summon and ride; the "viing" component is commonly associated with wing-imagery by the community, but this is fan analysis, not an official Bethesda gloss Durnehviir — proper name of an undead dragon encountered in the Dawnguard expansion

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Greetings and common phrases

Peace (greeting) — Drem Yol Lok (DREM-yohl-LOHK) — (Bethesda canon usage, community-assisted literal gloss) — the phrase Paarthurnax uses to greet the Dragonborn; the game subtitles it simply as a greeting rather than a literal word-for-word translation, and the community has debated the literal components ("peace," "fire," "sky") ever since One / A — Aan (AHN) — (community-sourced, thuum.org) — proposed indefinite-article-like usage based on compound name patterns

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Ten words every beginner should recognize first

If you only remember ten words from this whole dictionary, these cover almost everything a Skyrim player will encounter in normal play.

1. Fus — Force
2. Ro — Balance
3. Dah — Push
4. Yol — Fire
5. Toor — Inferno
6. Shul — Sun
7. Dovah — Dragon
8. Dovahkiin — Dragonborn
9. Thu'um — Shout / Voice
10. Zu'u — I / Me

For the fuller phrase-level breakdown of how these words combine into actual shouts, see the companion piece: Dovahzul words and phrases.

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Caveats and best practices

1. Dovahzul has no single credited linguist. Unlike Klingon (Marc Okrand) or Na'vi (Paul Frommer), Dovahzul emerged from Bethesda's design team without a single named creator publishing an ongoing grammar. That means gaps in the corpus are permanent unless Bethesda releases new material.
2. Don't mistake thuum.org's proposed grammar for confirmed canon. It is careful, respected fan scholarship built by analyzing patterns in the attested words — genuinely impressive work — but it is a hypothesis about how the language works, not an official Bethesda grammar.
3. The written script and the spoken language are two different systems worth separating. Dragon script is logographic (each word has a unique symbol); the romanized spelling used throughout this page is a transliteration convention adopted by the community and used in-game for subtitles, not a native "alphabet."
4. Most vocabulary is combat-shout vocabulary. Because the game's own corpus is built around the Thu'um system, everyday nouns (food, family, weather, numbers) are almost entirely absent from Bethesda's official translations — a real and permanent gap, not an oversight on our part.

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How Dovahzul compares to fully developed dictionaries

Feature	Dovahzul	Klingon	Elvish (Quenya + Sindarin)
Officially translated words	~40	~3,000+	~20,000+ roots
Single credited creator	No	Yes (Marc Okrand)	Yes (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Complete published grammar	No	Yes	Yes
Community dictionary	thuum.org	KLI supplements	Multiple academic sources
Learning app/course	None dedicated	Duolingo-adjacent	Tengwar

If you're drawn to Dovahzul because you love the idea of an ancient, mythic dragon language, Tengwar's Elvish courses cover similarly mythic ground with a vastly larger and more grammatically complete vocabulary. We don't teach Dovahzul — we teach Elvish, Klingon, and Dothraki — and we'd rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise.

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People also ask

How many words are in the Dovahzul dictionary? Bethesda officially translated roughly 40 shout words in Skyrim's own Magic menu. The fan-maintained dictionary at thuum.org expands this to a few hundred words by cataloging every attested term across the game's dialogue, books, and expansions, and by proposing consistent readings for compound names. This page organizes both the official and community-sourced vocabulary by category, labeling each clearly.

What is the Dovahzul word for dragon? Dragon is "dov" or "dovah" (DOH-vah). It is the single most productive root in the entire language — it appears in "Dovahkiin" (Dragonborn), "Dovahzul" (Dragon Tongue/Language), and in the proper names of nearly every named dragon in the game.

What is the Dovahzul word for shout? Shout, or Voice, is "Thu'um" (THOOM). It names both the literal act of shouting and the broader Nordic tradition — the "Way of the Voice" — of channeling the dragon language's power into combat and utility effects. Every one of the game's shouts is a three-word Thu'um.

Is there an official Dovahzul dictionary from Bethesda? Not a standalone one. Bethesda's own translations live inside the game itself — the Magic menu shows each shout word's meaning as you unlock it at a Word Wall, and a handful of other words appear translated in dialogue subtitles or in-game books. There is no separately published Bethesda dictionary the way Marc Okrand published "The Klingon Dictionary" for Star Trek. The comprehensive dictionary most fans use is the community-run thuum.org.

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Learn a fully developed conlang with Tengwar

Tengwar doesn't teach Dovahzul — but if the mythic, dragon-adjacent appeal is what drew you here, our Elvish courses (Quenya and Sindarin) offer a similarly ancient, evocative language with genuine grammatical depth and 80+ years of scholarship behind it, alongside Klingon and Dothraki on the same platform. Start free → — 5 lessons per language, no credit card required.

Further reading

• Dovahzul words and phrases — the flat quick-start companion to this dictionary
• Best Fictional Languages to Learn — full ranking of every major conlang, including Dovahzul
• Is Na'vi Worth Learning? — another honest evaluation of a game/film conlang

If you can't find the word you need, ask our AI tutor — though note it draws on Elvish, Klingon, and Dothraki canon vocabulary, not Dovahzul.