Thingamajig in many languages

How to refer to things you don't know or have forgotten the name of in various languages. There are different ways to write some of these words as they have no standard spelling. These words are known as placeholders or placeholder words.

Language Thingamajig
Afrikaans dinges, goeters, watsenaam
Bengali ইয়ে (iay), এ যে (e je), চৌদ্দ গোষ্ঠী (chouddo goshthi)
Bosnian hepek
Bulgarian такова (takova), таковата (takovata), таковам (takovam), онова там нещо (onova tam neŝto)
Catalan daixonses, daixonsis, dallonses, dallonsis, d'això, d'allò
Cebuano kuan, kuwan, ku-an
Chechen хiумм (humm)
Chinese
(Mandarin)
东西 [東西] (dōngxī), 什么什么 [什麼什麼] (shénme shénme)
Czech toto, tentononc, udělátko, bazmek, hejble, blbinec
Danish dimes, dims, dimsedut, dingenot, dippedut, fittelihut, grej, himstergims, himstregimst , huddelifut, sager, tingest, tingenot
Dutch dinges, dingetje, dingesgeval, je-weet-wel, jeweetwel, hoe-heet-het-ook-al-weer, happeldepap, hippeldepip, huppeldepup, huppeldepupgeval, soortement, soortement iets, wat-ook-al-weer
English affair, bazinga, dealie, dealy, dinglehopper, dingus, dohickey, doobry, doodad, doodah, doodathingywhatsit, doohickey, doojigger, foo, foobar, frammis, frobnitz, gadget, geegaw, gewgaw, gimmick, gismo, gizmo, gubbins, hickey, hoobajoob, hoojamaflip, jigger, job, jobber, jobby, oojamaflip, stuff, thing, thingamabob, thingamajig, thingamy, thingie, thingo, thingumabob, thingumajig, thingumbob, thingummy, thingy, ting, whatchamacallit, whattayacallit, watcha ma’call it, what’s-a-name, whatsitsname, what's-its-name, whoositdoodle, whatnot, whatsit, whatsis, whiff-whaff, widget, wingding, wossname, wotsit
thingmy, hingmie, hingmy (Scottish English)
yoke (Irish English)
chummyjigger, machine (Newfoundland English)
Finnish härpäke, härpätin, härveli, hilavitkutin, juttu, kapine, laite, mikälie, mikä lie, vehje, vempain, värkki
French bidule, (petit) bidouillou, bidule-truc-muche, chose, espèce de machin, machin, machin-bidule, machin-bidule-trucmuche, machin-chose, machin-chouette, machin-truc, schmilblick, schtroumpf, toutim, tout'l'toutim, truc, truc-bidule-machin-chouette, trucmuche, (petit) zigouigoui
affaire, bebelle, cossin, gogosse, patente à gosse (Quebec)
German Dings, Dingens, Dingsda, Dingsbums, Dingsdabumsda, Kram, Krimskrams, Krempel, Sache
Hawaiian Pidgin da kine
Hebrew (mah-shmo) מה-שמו, (zeh) זה
Hindi फ़लाँ (falāñ), फ़लाना ढिकाना (falāna ďhikāna)
Hungarian izé, hogyhívják, hogyishívják, bigyó, cucc, akármi, miafene, micsoda
Irish (Gaelic) cá hainm seo atá air, an rud sin eile, an rud sin úd
Italian affare, aggeggio, coso, comesichiama, fattapposta, roba
Japanese なになに (naninani), なんとかなんとか (nantoka nantoka)
Korean 뭐뭐뭐 (mwomwomwo)
Malay anu
Māori mea, taru
Norwegian chiz, mäsmäsak
Ojibwe ii’ii
Persian (Farsi) (folān/felān) فلان, (bisār) بیسار, (bahmān) بهمان, (chiz) چيز
Polish coś, cudo, dynks, dyngs, dzyndzel, knefel, ten teges, ten tego, ustrojstwo, wihajster
Portuguese cena, coiso, coisa
Portuguese (Brazilian) bagulhets, bagulho, breguenets, breguenaits, coisa, coiso, coisinho, negócio, negocinho, parada, treco, trequinho, trem, troço, trem
Romanian chestie, cutare, cum-îi-zice, cum-se-cheamă, nu-știu-cum, cine știe ce, un din-ăla
Russian какая-то хрень (kakaya-to-xren’), штуковина (shtukovina), шняга (shnyaga), прибамбас (pribambas), приспособление (prisposoblenie), фигня (fignya)
Serbian это самое (eto samoe), штука (štuka), ботва (botva), фигня (fignja), бред (bred)
Shona nhingi
Slovak oné, oným onô, tento, hento, tamto
Spanish chisme, follón (Spain)
chingadera (Mexico)
la hueá, wea (Chile)
Swahili burungo, kanini
Swazi nanguzana
Swedish grej, grejsimojs, grunka, grunkimojs, mackapär, manick, moj, mojäng, pryl, sak, tingest, tjofräs
Tagalog anó, kuán, kuwán, yung anó
Turkish falan, filan, filanca, ıvır zıvır, zamazingo
Urdu (falāna ďhikāna) فلانہ ڈھکانہ ،(falāñ) فلاں
Vietnamese classifier + gì đó
Welsh pethma, be’ ti’n galw, be’ chi’n galw, bechingalw
Yiddish der zach, freppice, veeblefetzer
Yoruba lagbaja, temedu
Zulu nansika
Auxiliary and constructed languages
Esperanto io ajn, ajno, ajna, ajne, umo

Sources

https://www.facebook.com/groups/363798994977415/permalink/399754498048531/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/omniglot/permalink/10158643011994666/
https://www.freethesaurus.com/thingamy
https://www.powerthesaurus.org/thingamajig
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thingamabob
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Thesaurus:thingy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_placeholder_names_by_language

Here's a song I wrote that features a few of these words:

Simon Ager · Thingamajig

People who have contributed to this section

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, or if you can provide recordings, please contact me.

Other phrases

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