Farsi Body Parts: Head to Toe in Persian

A few years ago I walked into a pharmacy in Tehran with a splitting headache. I pointed at my temple and said سرم درد می‌کنه. saram dard mikone. "my head hurts." The pharmacist handed me pills. Simple enough. But then my friend, who’d eaten something questionable at a kababi, walked in and told the same pharmacist دلم درد می‌کنه. delam dard mikone. The pharmacist asked three follow-up questions. Because دل. del. doesn’t just mean stomach. Or heart. Or gut. It means about fifty different things depending on context. That’s the thing about Farsi body parts. half of them moonlight as emotional vocabulary.

This post covers 50+ body parts from head to toe, but I’m not giving you a boring word list. You’ll get the real spoken forms, the idioms hiding inside each word, and the cultural weight that no flashcard app will ever teach you. If you want the full vocabulary topic map, check the Vocabulary by Topic hub.

Head and Face

The head and face carry the most vocabulary. and the most idioms. Fifteen words live here, and almost every one of them doubles as a metaphor.

سر. sar. head
چشم. cheshm. eye
گوش. gush. ear
دهان. dahân. mouth
بینی. bini. nose
لب. lab. lip
ابرو. abru. eyebrow
پیشانی. pishâni. forehead
گونه. gune. cheek
دندان. dandân. tooth
زبان. zabân. tongue
گردن. gardan. neck
مو. mu. hair
ریش. rish. beard
گلو. galu. throat

A few things to notice. ابرو. abru. means eyebrow, but it also means honour, dignity, reputation. If someone says ابروم رفت. abrum raft. they don’t mean their eyebrow fell off. They mean they’ve been publicly humiliated. Context is everything.

زبان. zabân. is tongue, but also language. زبان فارسی. zabân-e fârsi. the Persian language. And چشم. cheshm. means eye, but when someone asks you to do something and you reply چشم, you’re saying "of course, with respect." It’s one of the most common tarof responses in Farsi.

That â to u vowel shift. dandân becoming dundun. is classic Tehrani spoken Farsi. You’ll hear it everywhere. The written form shows up in books and news; the spoken form is what you’ll actually hear on the street.

Upper Body

From the shoulders down to the waist. Ten words, and دست. dast. is doing the heavy lifting (pun absolutely intended).

دست. dast. hand / arm
بازو. bâzu. upper arm
انگشت. angosht. finger
شانه. shâne. shoulder
سینه. sine. chest
کمر. kamar. waist / lower back
ناخن. nâkhon. nail (fingernail)
آرنج. âranj. elbow
مچ. moch. wrist
کف دست. kaf-e dast. palm

دست. dast. is one of the most overworked words in Persian. It means hand AND arm. If you need to specify, you say بازو. bâzu. for the upper arm, but in daily conversation, dast covers everything from shoulder to fingertip. It also appears in at least 30 idioms. دستت درد نکنه. dastet dard nakone. literally "may your hand not hurt". is how you thank someone for cooking, helping, or doing anything with their hands. You’ll say this ten times a day in Iran.

Not every word changes between registers. انگشت stays angosht in both. That’s worth knowing. learners sometimes overcorrect and try to "colloquialize" words that don’t need it.

Lower Body

Eight words from the hips down. Like dast for the upper body, پا. pâ. does double duty here.

پا. pâ. foot / leg
زانو. zânu. knee
پاشنه. pâshne. heel
انگشت پا. angosht-e pâ. toe
ران. rân. thigh
ساق. sâgh. shin / calf
مچ پا. moch-e pâ. ankle
کف پا. kaf-e pâ. sole of the foot

پا. pâ. works exactly like dast: it covers the entire leg AND foot. To specify "foot" alone, people sometimes say کف پا. kaf-e pâ. (sole) or just point. In idioms, pâ shows up constantly. پاشو. pâsho. literally "your foot" but really means "get up!" It’s contracted from پا شو. pâ sho. (stand on your feet).

Internal Organs and Abstract Body Parts

This is where Persian gets wild. In English, your organs stay inside your body. In Farsi, they walk around having emotions.

دل. del. heart / stomach / gut / soul / mood
مغز. maghz. brain
جگر. jegar. liver
قلب. qalb. heart (the organ)
ریه. rie. lung
معده. me’deh. stomach (medical)

The difference between دل and قلب trips up every learner. قلب. qalb. is the physical heart, the one a cardiologist cares about. دل. del. is the emotional centre of your entire being. It’s your heart, your gut feeling, your mood, your stomach, your courage, your desire. I wrote an entire post about del because one blog section can’t contain it.

جگر. jegar. liver. is a term of endearment. Calling someone جگرم. jegaram. "my liver". means "my darling." Sounds bizarre in English. Completely normal in Persian. Your liver, in Iranian culture, is where deep love lives. Mothers call their kids jegaram. Lovers use it. It’s tender, not anatomical.

Body Parts in Idioms: Why Iranians Talk About Livers

Here’s where learning Farsi body parts pays off beyond the doctor’s office. Persian idioms are built on the body. If you only memorize anatomical translations, you’ll miss half of every conversation.

چشم. cheshm. "eye". used to mean "yes, with respect"

چشم، الان انجام میدم. cheshm, alân anjâm midam. “Of course, I’ll do it right now”

سرم درد می‌کنه. saram dard mikone. "my head hurts". literal, but also "I have a problem/headache (figurative)"

دستت درد نکنه. dastet dard nakone. "may your hand not hurt". thank you (for physical effort)

زبونت رو گاز بگیر. zabunet ro gâz begir. "bite your tongue". shut up / don’t say that (same as English!)

پشت چشم نازک کردن. posht-e cheshm nâzok kardan. "thinning behind the eye". looking down on someone, acting arrogant

سر کسی کلاه گذاشتن. sar-e kasi kolâh gozâshtan. "putting a hat on someone’s head". scamming / tricking someone

دل و روده‌ام بهم ریخت. del-o rude-am beham rikht. "my del and intestines got mixed up". I got nauseous / I got emotionally shaken

گردن من. gardan-e man. "on my neck". I take responsibility / it’s on me

ابروریزی. abruizi. "eyebrow-pouring". public embarrassment, loss of face

پا توی کفش کسی کردن. pâ tuye kafsh-e kasi kardan. "putting your foot in someone’s shoe". pressuring someone, nagging

دل‌ام می‌خواد. delam mikhâd. "my del wants". I want / I feel like (the most common way to express desire)

جگرم آتیش گرفت. jegaram âtish gereft. "my liver caught fire". I’m devastated / deeply hurt

کمرم شکست. kamaram shekast. "my back broke". I’m financially ruined / overwhelmed

چشم‌ات روشن. cheshmat roshan. "may your eye be bright". congratulations (said when someone receives good news)

سرم رو بخور. saram ro bokhor. "eat my head". annoy me / nag me (used ironically)

That’s fifteen expressions, and I could list fifty more. The pattern is clear: Persians don’t describe emotions abstractly. They locate them in the body. Your del wants things. Your jegar burns. Your abru spills. Once you see this pattern, spoken Farsi starts making a lot more sense.

If you’re practising these with a tutor, having someone correct your usage in real time makes a huge difference. I teach on Preply. we can run through these idioms together.

At the Doctor: Medical Body Vocabulary

When you’re at a clinic in Iran, you need the formal terms. Doctors won’t blink at del, but for specific body parts, the medical register matters.

Key phrases for the doctor’s office:

اینجا درد می‌کنه. injâ dard mikone. “It hurts here”

سرم گیج میره. saram gij mire. “I’m dizzy” (literally: my head goes dizzy)

حالت تهوع دارم. hâlat-e tahavvo’ dâram. “I feel nauseous”

نفسم بالا نمیاد. nafasam bâlâ nemiyâd. “I can’t breathe” (literally: my breath won’t come up)

For a full breakdown of pharmacy and medical phrases. including how to buy medicine without a prescription (yes, it’s that easy in Iran). check out the pharmacy and medical Farsi post.

Quick Reference Table

You can practise all 52 of these words. with audio from a native speaker. in ZabanYar, the Persian learning app I built specifically because nothing else taught real spoken Farsi.

FAQ

Fifty-two words, fifteen idioms, and one big idea: in Persian, the body isn’t just anatomy. It’s the vocabulary of emotion, respect, and insult. Learn the words on this page and you won’t just pass a vocab quiz. you’ll actually understand what Iranians mean when they talk about their livers catching fire.

Want to practise these with a native speaker who won’t let you sound like a textbook? Book a session with me on Preply and we’ll put your zabân to work.