Guide · Culture
Finnish sauna words
Finnish has a word for everything that happens in a sauna, and many of them have no good English translation. Here are the ones you will hear, with what they mean.
The room
- sauna
- The room, and the bath itself. In Finnish it is pronounced roughly SOW-nah, with "sow" as in "cow".
- löyly
- The steam and the wave of heat that rises when water hits the hot stones. Also the overall quality of the heat: hyvät löylyt means good sauna heat.
- kiuas
- The heater or stove, electric or wood-burning. More →
- kiuaskivet
- Heater stones. More →
- lauteet
- The benches, usually in two or three levels. The higher the bench, the hotter. More →
- löylyhuone
- The hot room itself, as opposed to the dressing or washing rooms.
- pukuhuone
- The dressing room.
- savusauna
- Smoke sauna: heated without a chimney, then aired before bathing. More →
- kertalämmitteinen kiuas
- Heat-storing stove, heated once before bathing and then giving löyly for hours. More →
- jatkuvalämmitteinen kiuas
- A stove that keeps burning or heating while you bathe, the common type.
In the sauna
- kiulu
- The water bucket.
- kauha
- The ladle used to throw water on the stones.
- heittää löylyä
- To throw löyly: to ladle water onto the stones. More →
- vihta / vasta
- A whisk of leafy birch branches. Vihta in the west of Finland, vasta in the east; both words are used across the country. More →
- vihtoa
- To pat yourself or someone else with a vihta.
- laudeliina
- A towel or cloth to sit on.
- jälkilöylyt
- The gentle last löyly as the sauna begins to cool, often the most loved part of the evening.
- saunoa
- The verb: to take a sauna.
Around the sauna
- avanto
- A hole cut in the ice for a winter dip. More →
- saunavuoro
- A sauna turn: the time slot for a family or group, for example in a shared apartment-block sauna.
- saunailta
- A sauna evening with friends or family.
- saunatonttu
- The sauna elf of folklore, who looks after the sauna and its bathers if they behave.
- häkä
- Carbon monoxide: the reason a wood-burning sauna needs a working chimney and an alarm.
- saunapuhdas
- Literally "sauna-clean": as clean as you can get.
Missing a word you have heard? Tell me.