A Glossary of Pali Buddhist Terms

Edited by John T. Bullitt (Access to Insight)

A - B - C - D - E - F

G - H - I - J - K - L

M - N - O - PQ

R - S - T - U - V

WXYZ

All Buddhist translations are approximations of very exact Buddhist terms. Those terms stem from an ancient language only preserved by Sanghas and scholars across the world. Pali is an exclusively Buddhist language, some variant of which the historical Buddha spoke (Magadhi, Prakrit). This glossary covers many of the Pali words and technical terms one comes across in books, Wisdom Quarterly articles, and on the Web. The most common spellings are listed first, followed by alternate spellings. The phonetic (Velthuis) spelling of the Pali is given in brackets. The "[MORE]" link that follows some entries leads to a more detailed article on the selected topic.