Glossary of Buddhism

Some Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. Below are given a number of important Buddhist terms, short definitions, and the languages in which they appear. In this list, an attempt has been made to organize terms by their original form and give translations and synonyms in other languages along with the definition.

Languages and traditions dealt with here:

English (Eng.)
Pāli: Theravada Buddhism
Sanskrit (or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit): primarily Mahayana Buddhism
Bengali (Bgd): Buddhism in Bangladesh
Sinhala (Sri): Buddhism in Sri Lanka
Burmese (Bur): Buddhism in Myanmar
Karen (Kar): Theravada Buddhism
Khmer: Buddhism in Cambodia
Mon (Mon): Theravada Buddhism
Mongolian (Mn): Buddhism in Mongolia
Shan (Shan): Theravada Buddhism
Tibetan (Tib): Tibetan Buddhism
Dzongkha ༼རྫོང་ཁ༽ (Dzo): Buddhism in Bhutan
Thai: Buddhism in Thailand
Lao: Buddhism in Laos
CJKV languages
- Chinese (Cn): Chinese Buddhism
- Cantonese (Hk): Buddhism in Hong Kong
- Japanese (Jp): Buddhism in Japan
- Korean (Ko): Korean Buddhism
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Tw): Buddhism in Taiwan
- Vietnamese (Vi): Buddhism in Vietnam (Mahayana and Theravada)
Javanese (Jv): Buddhism in Indonesia