Cannabis has many different names, including more than 1,200 slang terms, and more than 2,300 names for individual strains. Additionally, there are many names to describe the state of being under the influence of the substance. This list is not exhaustive; it includes well-attested names.
Formal names
NameAboutal-quinnab / al-quinnamForms used in Al-Andalus, including but not limited to: al-quinnab, al-qinnab al-barrī, qinnab al-barrīyya, al-qinnab al-hindī, al-qinnab al-bustānī, qinnab rūmī"ang" or "an"A Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Semitic root from which the words for cannabis in "all modern languages" derive, per Alphonse de Candolle."kan-"The proto-Kartvelian stem for hemp. It is more recent than the proto-Indo-European stem."san-" and "kan-" or "gan-"The Proto-Indo-European stem for hemp/cannabis sativa, "san-" and "kan-" or "gan-", existed prior to the 5th century (400 CE). Differently, "k(h)an-" indicates singing/making a sound.भांग (bhang)Hindi, sixteenth century, from Sanskrit "bhaṅgáḥ", "bhaṅgā" (see below). Also recorded as Persian. Garcia de Orta recorded the name as "bangue", as did Jan Huyghen van Linschoten. Full text at Internet Archive. Chapter on Bangue. Used in British English, it can also be spelt "bang", and retains much of the original meaning. In American English it may refer to hemp or a tea made from hemp that is either drunk or smoked.
The Bhangmeter, a type of radiometer, is named as a pun on "Bhang".
.bhaṅgāAn ancient Sanskrit name originating before the 5th century (400 CE).bhangiSwahili.
Note: Bhangi is also a Hindi term for a person who uses bhang.cáñamoSpanish, from Greek "kánnabos" and Andalusi Romance "quinnam". Originally, also poetically used to refer to objects made of hemp. .canapaItalian; an 1894 Italian botany study of the plant notes the word has the same etymology as the French "chanvre". .cannabisLatin.
English botanical name. Assigned in the mid-eighteenth century, cannabis and hemp describe the entire cannabis plant for all its uses. Dried preparations of the plant are also called ganja, one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for marijuana.
.cần saVietnamese.ChambaChichewa.ChanvreFrench; Alphonse de Candolle, the first authority on cultivated plants, wrote that like all other modern terms for cannabis, "chanvre" ultimately derives from proto-Indo-European "ang". .चरस (Charas)Hindi.DaggaAfrikaans and English.DiambaKimbundu.EsrarTurkish.ගංජා (Gaṁjā)Sinhala.GandiaMauritius.GanjaHindi or Bengali.గంజాయి (Gan̄jāyi)Telugu.GañjikāAn ancient Sanskrit name originating before the 5th century (400 CE).GrifaMexican Spanish.HanfGerman.HampDanish.HampaSwedish.HamppuFinnish.HashishArabic. Also "assis", per Jan Huyghen van Linschoten. Alphonse de Candolle described hashish as an "environmental material"; he included the Egyptians of the 18th century primarily cultivating cannabis for hashish in his list of places where the plant (which he primarily saw as a textile producer) was not popular.HempEnglish, name for cannabis plant.HennepDutch.HursīnīAn ancient Sanskrit name originating before the 5th century (400 CE).InjagaRwanda.KanasCeltic.കഞ്ചാവ് (Kañcāv)Malayalam; from the Dravidian root "kan" (eye), which can also refer to nipples, star on a peacock's tail, and buds.KaņepesLatvian.កញ្ឆា (Kanhchhea)Khmer.Kan-jacPanamanian Spanish.Kάνναβις (Kánnabis)An ancient Greek name originating before the 5th century (400 CE).กัญชา (Kạỵchā)Thai.KenevirTurkish.قنب (Kinnab or Quinnab)An ancient Arabic name originating before the 5th century (400 CE). May also have been spelt "Cannab".KonopíCzech.KonopiePolish.Конопля (Konoplya)Russian; derives from proto-Indo-European or proto-Kartvelian.KunnabuAn ancient Akkadian name originating before the 5th century (400 CE).麻 (Má)Má, a Chinese name for hemp, predates written history and has been used to describe medical marijuana since at least 2700 BCE. It is the earliest recorded name. Hemp is recorded in the Book of Documents.Ma-kañaBantu.MaconhaPortuguese.MarijuanaAmericanized Mexican Spanish. The term has a complex etymology, derived from western Central African slaves (notably, the Kimbundu word riamba/mariamba) transformed through Caribbean and South American influences info mariguana, later marihuana and marijuana.MbanjeShona.PakaloloHawaiian.PangoPortuguese.PotiguayaSpanish.삼 (Sam-gwa)Korean.Šedenegi / šahdānaŷFrom Persian origins, meaning approximately "the King of Grains" / "the Sultan of all seeds"; used to refer to seeded tops of cannabis and hemp plants in the Mediterranean region and particularly Al-Andalus. Also found as šahrānaŷ, šahdanaq, šādānaq, sedeneghi, shedenegi.SiddhiBengali.ירוק (Yarok) ירק (Yerek)Yerok is literal translation for the color green and Yerek is literal translation for the word vegetables in Hebrew.
Strains, cultivation and preparation
Commercial cannabis growers and retailers have given individual strains more than 2,300 names. A 2022 study in PLOS One, drawing data from almost 90,000 samples from six US states, representing the largest quantitative chemical mapping of commercial dispensary-grade cannabis flower samples to date, found that "commercial labels do not consistently align with the observed chemical diversity." In other words, many strain names do not necessarily reflect the actual cannabinoid content or its perceived effects.