once upon a time

Adverb

 * 1) A long time ago; at some time in the past.

Usage notes

 * Not to be confused with upon a time, which has a different meaning.

Synonyms

 * , ; see also Thesaurus:long ago

Translations
Note: Many of the translations are literally “There once was” or "One time". The translation of “Once upon a time, there was a princess” into Italian, for example, would therefore be “C’era una volta una principessa” (literally, “There was once a princess”).


 * Abenaki: agwa
 * Albanian: na ishte njëherë
 * Arabic: كَان يَامَا كَان
 * Algerian Arabic: جيتك ما جيتك
 * Moroccan Arabic: حاجيتك ما جيتك
 * Armenian: կար-չկար, լինում է, չի լինում
 * Asturian: ello foi una vegada
 * Azerbaijani: biri var idi, biri yox idi, günlərin bir günündə
 * Bashkir: борон-борон заманда
 * Basque: ,
 * Breton:
 * Bulgarian: имало едно време
 * Catalan: hi havia una vegada, això era una vegada
 * Cebuano: kaniadtong panahona
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 很久很久以前,
 * Czech: bylo nebylo
 * Danish: der var engang
 * Dutch: er was eens
 * Esperanto: iam estis
 * Estonian: oli kord, elas kord, üks kord ennemuistsel ajal,
 * Faroese: einaferð var tað
 * Finnish: olipa kerran, olipa kerran kauan sitten
 * French: ,
 * Galician: había unha vez, cando os animais falaban
 * Georgian: იყო და არა იყო რა, იყო და არა იყო რა, ღვთის უკეთესი რა იქნებოდა
 * German:
 * Greek:, μια φορά ήταν δεν ήταν
 * Ancient: ἦν γάρ ποτε χρόνος, οὕτω ποτ' ἦν μῦς καὶ γαλῆ
 * Hebrew:
 * Hindi: किसी ज़माने में
 * Hungarian:, hol volt, hol nem volt
 * Icelandic: einu sinni var, það var einu sinni
 * Ido:
 * Igbo: orue otu mgbe
 * Indonesian: pada suatu hari
 * Interlingua: il era un vice, olim
 * Irish: feacht n-aon, fadó fadó, tráth dá raibh, lá den saol
 * Italian: c'era una volta
 * Jamaican Creole: one time
 * Japanese:, 今は昔
 * Khmer: កាលពីព្រេងនាយ, កាលដើមឡើយ
 * Komi-Zyrian: оліс-выліс
 * Korean: 옛날 옛적에, 옛날 옛적
 * Kurdish:
 * Central Kurdish: ڕۆژێ لە ڕۆژان, ھەبوو نەبوو
 * Northern Kurdish: hebû tune bû, hebû nebû, ,
 * Latin:
 * Latvian: reiz sensenos laikos
 * Lithuanian: seniai, labai seniai
 * Malay: pada suatu masa, pada suatu hari
 * Malayalam:, പണ്ടൊരിക്കൽ
 * Maori: tērā tētahi, tērā ētahi
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Nynorsk: det var ein gong
 * Old English: ǣr, ġēara, ġēardagum, fyrn, ġefyrn
 * Persian: روزی روزگاری, یکی بود یکی نبود, روزی از روزها
 * Plautdietsch: donnemol
 * Polish: pewnego razu; ;
 * Portuguese:, havia uma vez
 * Romanian: a fost odată, a fost odată ca niciodată
 * Russian:, ,
 * Sanskrit: पुराकाले,
 * Sardinian: B'aiat una borta
 * Scottish Gaelic: bha siud ann uaireigin
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic:, ,
 * Roman:, ,
 * Slovak: ,
 * Spanish:, , era una vez
 * Sranan Tongo: er tin tin
 * Swahili: hapo zamani za kale
 * Swedish:
 * Tagalog: noóng unang panahón
 * Tamil: முன்பு ஒது தாள், முன்பு ஒது காலம்
 * Telugu: ఒకానొకప్పుడు
 * Thai: กาลครั้งหนึ่ง
 * Tok Pisin: bipo tru
 * Turkish: bir varmış, bir yokmuş
 * Ukrainian: жили-були, давним давно
 * Urdu: کسی زمانے میں
 * Vietnamese:
 * Welsh:
 * Wolof: amone nafi
 * Yiddish: אַ מאָל