List of English words of Russian origin

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Many languages, including English, contain words (Russianisms) most likely borrowed from the Russian language. Not all of the words are of purely Russian or origin. Some of them co-exist in other Slavic languages, and it can be difficult to determine whether they entered English from Russian or, say, Bulgarian. Some other words are borrowed or constructed from classical ancient languages, such as Latin or Greek. Still others are themselves borrowed from indigenous peoples that Russians have come into contact with in Russian or Soviet territory.

Compared to other source languages, English contains few words adopted from Russian.^[1] Direct borrowing first began with contact between England and Russia in the 16th century and picked up heavily in the 20th century, with the establishment of the Soviet Union as a major world power.^[2] Most of these words denote things and notions specific to Russia, Russian culture, politics, and history, but also well known outside Russia. Some others are in mainstream usage and independent of any Russian context.

While both English and Russian are distantly related members of Indo-European and therefore share a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, cognate pairs such as mother – мать (mat') will be excluded from the list.