The Greek, Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Latin that is translated as “desert” or “wilderness” in English is translated in a number of ways:

• Mairasi: “a place where noisiness is cut off (or: stops)” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
• Muna: pandaso bhalano pr “big barren-field” (source: René van den Berg)
• Wantoat: “cold windy place where no one lives” (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2-20)
• Balinese: “barren field” (source: J.L. Swellengrebel in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 75ff. )
• Wantoat: “uninhabited place” (source: Holzhausen 1991, p. 38)
• Umiray Dumaget Agta: “where no people dwell” (source: Larson 1998, p. 98)
• Shipibo-Conibo: “where no house is” (source: James Lauriault in The Bible Translator 1951, p. 32ff. )
• Amri Karbi: “waterless region/place” (source: Philippova 2021, p. 368)
• Ocotlán Zapotec: “large empty place” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
• Pa’o Karen: “jungle” (denoting a place without any towns, villages and tilled fields) (source: Gordon Luce in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 153f. )
• Low German translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006: “steppe”
• Yakan: “the lonely place” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
• Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a land where no people lived” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
• Kankanaey: “the place with no inhabitants” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
• Cherokee: inage or “far away downstream” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
• Matumbi uses various term: lubele (desert, sandy place without water) — used in John 11:54, lupu’ngu’ti (a place where no people live, can be a scrub land, a forest, or a savanna) — used in Mark 1:3 et al.), and mwitu (a forest, a place where wild animals live) — used in Mark 1:13 et al.) (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
• Chichewa Contemporary translation (2002/2016): chipululu: a place uninhabited by people with thick forest and bush (source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
• Adioukrou: loj or “savannah” — “land that is not village, nor forest, nor field (source: Hill 2006)
• Morelos Nahuatl: “where nobody lives”

Isthmus Mixe: “dry country” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

Note that in Luke 15:4, usually a term is used that denotes pastoral land, such as “eating/grazing-place,” in Tagbanwa (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

See also wilderness and desolate wilderness.