The Greek, Ge’ez and Hebrew that is usually translated as “parable” in English is translated in other languages in a number of ways:

• Piro: “picture with words”
• Pamona: “message in the manner of a comparison”
• Highland Totonac and South Bolivian Quechua: “comparison word”
• Tzeltal: “picture story”
• Yucateco and Central Tarahumara: “likeness word”
• Cashibo-Cacataibo: “story which says like that”
• Chicahuaxtla Triqui and Wayuu: “story told for teaching”
• Navajo (Dinė): “story from which understanding comes”
• Western Kanjobal: “notice from which comes teaching” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
• North Alaskan Inupiatun: “story with a meaning”
• Kekchí: “changed, or, turned-about word” (source for this and one above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
• Palantla Chinantec: “double talk” (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
• Mairasi: “example” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
• Toposa: “instrument that causes to touch (= attach) [s.th.],” i.e. “instrument for attaching another meaning” (source: Schröder 2026, p. 101)
• Low German: “picture” (translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006).
• Mandarin Chinese: bǐyù (比喻), lit. “comparison explanation” (source: Zetzsche)

In British Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines the signs for “tell-a-story” and “compare.” (Source: Anna Smith)

“Parable” in British Sign Language (source: Christian BSL, used with permission)

Scot McKnight (in The Second Testament, publ. 2023) translates it into English as analogy because “the Greek word has the sense of tossing down something alongside something else. Hence an analogy.”

See also image and figures of speech.