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nirvana

UK/nɪəˈvɑː.nə/US/nɪɹˈvɑ.nə/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,931 of 15,258neutral

Nirvana is a state of perfect peace beyond all suffering. Reach nirvana, the path to nirvana, a kind of nirvana.

In Buddhism it is the end of craving and of rebirth, and the Sanskrit means blown out, as a flame is — the image is of a fire going out for want of fuel rather than of a place arrived at. In loose English it means any state of perfect bliss.

Definitions of nirvana

  1. 1nounnirvanaA state of perfect peace beyond all suffering.B2+

    “Buddhist monks meditate for years in the hope of reaching nirvana.”

nirvana is a state.

Where it comes from

Sanskrit nirvana means blown out or extinguished, from nis, out, plus va, to blow.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂weh₁-

  2. Sanskrit

    निर्वाण — blown or put out, extinguished

  3. English, today

    nirvana

Sanskrit निर्वाण (“blown or put out, extinguished”), from निस् + वा, the second part cognate with Russian ве́тер (“wind”), weather, vent and wind.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

nirvana in the wild

  • In the Buddhist tradition, nirvana has commonly been interpreted as the extinction of the "three poisons" of greed (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (moha).

    Nirvana (Buddhism)

  • In Mahayana Buddhism, a further distinction is made between the "abiding" nirvana (equated with the nirvana of non-Mahayana Buddhism) and the Mahayanist nirvana which is "non-abiding".

    Nirvana (Buddhism)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.