The 185 most common Italian nouns

These are the 185 nouns among the 500 most common Italian words, in the order a corpus of everyday writing says you will meet them.

Meanings are given in English on this page. In the app they appear in your own language, translated on your device.

#	Word	Type	Meaning
34	il stato	Nouns	state
51	il anno	Nouns	year (all senses)
57	la parte	Nouns	part
83	la volta	Nouns	time, instance, occasion
84	la persona	Nouns	person, pl people, persons
86	il tempo	Nouns	time
93	la vita	Nouns	life
94	il lavoro	Nouns	work (all senses)
101	la casa	Nouns	house
105	il grazie	Nouns	thanks, thank-you (an expression of gratitude)
106	il caso	Nouns	chance, fate
107	il modo	Nouns	manner, way
108	il dato	Nouns	datum (item of data)
117	il fine	Nouns	end; purpose
119	il mondo	Nouns	world
123	il giorno	Nouns	day
129	il uomo	Nouns	person, man (human being)
132	la donna	Nouns	woman
139	la storia	Nouns	history
143	il problema	Nouns	problem
145	la città	Nouns	town, city
147	il posto	Nouns	place, spot
150	il momento	Nouns	moment
151	il piacere	Nouns	pleasure, enjoyment
153	il pubblico	Nouns	the public
154	il paese	Nouns	country (nation)
157	la foto	Nouns	photo, snap
161	il nome	Nouns	name
165	il mese	Nouns	month
168	il gruppo	Nouns	group, cluster, party, team, covey
172	giorni	Nouns	days
175	il morto	Nouns	dead man
182	il numero	Nouns	number
184	la famiglia	Nouns	family
189	la mano	Nouns	hand
192	il conto	Nouns	calculation
193	roma	Nouns	a type of rice
195	il santo	Nouns	saint
200	il uso	Nouns	use
206	il sito	Nouns	place, site, location
208	la politica	Nouns	politics
210	il video	Nouns	video (all senses)
212	il ragazzo	Nouns	boy, young man
218	il sistema	Nouns	system
220	il esempio	Nouns	example
222	la scuola	Nouns	school
223	il possibile	Nouns	possible
227	il governo	Nouns	government, administration, rule
229	il libro	Nouns	book
232	il amico	Nouns	friend, companion, partner
234	la settimana	Nouns	week
235	il servizio	Nouns	service, serve
236	il studio	Nouns	study
237	la società	Nouns	society, community
239	la ragazza	Nouns	girl, young woman
242	il bambino	Nouns	child, baby, toddler
245	il centro	Nouns	centre, center
248	il corso	Nouns	course (of a river, of a university, etc.)
249	il bisogno	Nouns	need
251	la guerra	Nouns	war, warfare
253	il rispetto	Nouns	respect, deference
254	la base	Nouns	base, alkaline
259	la domanda	Nouns	question
262	la serie	Nouns	series
263	il dio	Nouns	god, deity
264	il seguito	Nouns	sequel, rest, follow-up, continuation
266	il senso	Nouns	sense
267	la causa	Nouns	cause
268	il passo	Nouns	footstep (sound)
269	il presente	Nouns	present tense
271	la ragione	Nouns	reason, intellect
272	la bella	Nouns	beauty, belle (beautiful woman)
273	il figlio	Nouns	son
274	la terra	Nouns	ground
278	il partito	Nouns	party, political party (political group)
279	il successo	Nouns	success
280	il livello	Nouns	level
282	la porta	Nouns	gate
285	il film	Nouns	film, movie
288	la forma	Nouns	form
290	il luogo	Nouns	place (location, position)
291	la opera	Nouns	work
294	la voce	Nouns	voice
295	il campo	Nouns	field
299	il presidente	Nouns	president (head of state of a republic)
302	la situazione	Nouns	situation, position, condition, circumstances
305	il padre	Nouns	father
306	il termine	Nouns	end, close
309	il articolo	Nouns	article
310	il passato	Nouns	past (time before the present)
314	il genere	Nouns	kind
315	la informazione	Nouns	information
316	la prova	Nouns	trial, test, experiment
320	la parole	Nouns	lyrics, words
325	la ricerca	Nouns	search, quest, hunt, manhunt, prospecting, pursuit
331	la vista	Nouns	sight, eyesight, vision, visual acuity
332	il titolo	Nouns	title (of a book, song etc.), headline (of an article)
333	il continuo	Nouns	that which has continuity or continuousness
334	il capo	Nouns	boss, chief, leader
335	la zona	Nouns	a zone, area or district
336	la regione	Nouns	region, area, zone, district
337	il motivo	Nouns	reason, ground
340	la fatta	Nouns	type, kind
341	la buonanotte	Nouns	an instance or circumstance in which one says good night
343	la realtà	Nouns	reality
344	il accordo	Nouns	accord, agreement, bond
346	il grado	Nouns	degree
347	il corpo	Nouns	body (the physical structure of a human or animal)
350	il periodo	Nouns	period (in the periodic table)
351	la testa	Nouns	head
353	il effetto	Nouns	effect (in all senses)
354	il rapporto	Nouns	report, statement, account
355	il amore	Nouns	love
356	la figlia	Nouns	daughter
358	la notizia	Nouns	item of news
359	la acqua	Nouns	water
364	il settembre	Nouns	September
367	la faccia	Nouns	face (of a person or an animal)
369	la chiesa	Nouns	church
371	il programma	Nouns	programme/program, schedule, agenda
372	il marzo	Nouns	March (the month)
375	il giro	Nouns	turn, twist, rotation, revolution
382	la lingua	Nouns	tongue
384	il personale	Nouns	staff, personnel
385	la attività	Nouns	activity, operation
388	il soldi	Nouns	money
389	la condizione	Nouns	condition
390	la tratta	Nouns	seine fishing
391	la questione	Nouns	question, issue, matter, point
393	la posizione	Nouns	position
395	il voto	Nouns	vow
400	il fondo	Nouns	bottom
401	la linea	Nouns	line
402	il nero	Nouns	black (color/colour)
405	il cittadino	Nouns	citizen, subject
406	il inglese	Nouns	Englishman, Englishwoman
407	il danno	Nouns	damage, harm, injury
408	la pagina	Nouns	page (of a book, etc.)
413	il ricordo	Nouns	memory, recollection, remembrance
414	il maggio	Nouns	May (fifth month of the Gregorian calendar)
418	il mare	Nouns	sea
420	la giornata	Nouns	day
421	la esperienza	Nouns	experience
422	il controllo	Nouns	check, control, verification, examination, inspection
423	la immagine	Nouns	image
428	il interesse	Nouns	interest, concern
429	il favore	Nouns	favour/favor
435	il signore	Nouns	Lord, God
436	il aspetto	Nouns	look (act of looking)
437	il mercato	Nouns	market (in all senses)
439	il euro	Nouns	euro (currency)
440	la sicurezza	Nouns	safety, security
441	il prezzo	Nouns	price
444	la cura	Nouns	care
446	il cuore	Nouns	muscular organ that pumps blood
447	la sera	Nouns	evening
449	la paura	Nouns	fear
450	il resto	Nouns	rest, remainder, balance
451	la cultura	Nouns	culture
454	il giugno	Nouns	June
457	la nota	Nouns	note (in all senses)
461	il processo	Nouns	trial, action, lawsuit, suit, proceedings
462	la luce	Nouns	light
463	la azione	Nouns	action, deed
465	la musica	Nouns	music
466	il fratello	Nouns	brother, sibling
467	il aiuto	Nouns	help, assistance, aid
468	la azienda	Nouns	firm, company, business, concern, establishment
469	la arte	Nouns	art
472	il ottobre	Nouns	October
473	la parola	Nouns	word (distinct unit of language)
475	il sud	Nouns	south
477	la squadra	Nouns	set square, triangle (tool)
480	il colore	Nouns	color/colour
483	la relazione	Nouns	connection
485	il luglio	Nouns	July
487	il ordine	Nouns	order (command, instruction)
488	il evento	Nouns	event
490	la classe	Nouns	class (all senses)
491	il sviluppo	Nouns	development, growth, strengthening, expansion
495	il post	Nouns	post (message in a forum)
496	il re	Nouns	king (male monarch)
497	il ruolo	Nouns	role
498	il messaggio	Nouns	message
500	il piede	Nouns	foot

All 500 A1 words are on this page, free, with no sign-up.

The rest of the list

A2A2 Beginner: 500 more wordsaspettare · autore · spazio · abbastanza · possibilità
B1B1 Intermediate: 750 more wordscattivo · nave · capello · dettaglio · ampio
B2B2 Upper intermediate: 750 more wordstavola · causare · esistenza · chimico · agente

A2 to B2 are part of Oqou Pro, in the app, where you can also send any word straight into spaced review and meet it again on the day you are about to forget it.

Where this comes from

The order is measured: it comes from how often each word appears in a large corpus, counted across all the forms of a word rather than each form separately, so a verb is ranked where you really meet it. The band edges are a convention rather than a measurement. Nothing says word 501 is harder than word 500; the levels are cut where established graded reader series cut theirs.

wordfreq 3.1 (frequency order) + en.wiktionary via kaikki.org (part of speech, gender, gloss). Corpus read on 2026-09-16.

Questions

Where does the order come from?

From how often each word appears in a large corpus of everyday writing. Frequency is counted across all the forms of a word and attributed to the dictionary form, so a verb is ranked where a reader really meets it rather than being spread thinly over a dozen endings.

Why are these lists shorter than the ones with 5,000 or 10,000 words?

Because past about 2,500 a frequency rank stops meaning much. Rank 6,000 in a web corpus is not a harder word, it is a word that happens to be common in journalism. Established graded reader series top out near 2,500 headwords for the same reason.

Is every word in the list a real dictionary word?

Yes. Every headword is checked against the language's own Wiktionary entry, which is where the part of speech, the gender and the meaning come from. That check is what removes the proper nouns, single letters and corpus noise that raw frequency lists are full of.

Do I need the app?

Not for this page. The A1 list is free here and free in the app. A2 to B2 are part of Oqou Pro, and the app is also where a word can go from a list into a review queue, which is the part a page cannot do.

Has a native speaker checked these?

Not yet. The frequency order and the part of speech are mechanical, and the meanings come from a dictionary rather than being written by hand, but nothing here has been through native review. If you spot a meaning that is technically right and practically useless, we would like to hear about it.