Reference
Glossary of Pāli terms
Every Pāli word on this site carries its plain meaning where it first appears on a page. This is the full list, in one place.
We keep the diacritics — the marks above and below some letters — because they are part of the words. They do not change how you should feel about saying them aloud imperfectly.
- Dhamma — the teaching
- What the Buddha taught; also, the way things are.
- Sangha — the community
- The monastics; more widely, the fourfold assembly of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen.
- sīla — virtue
- The moral training, kept by lay people as the Five Precepts.
- dāna — generosity
- Giving, practised as the first stage of the path — for the giver's own heart.
- uposatha — observance day
- The fortnightly day of quiet practice at the full and new moon.
- vassa — the rains retreat
- Three months when monastics settle in one place to practise and teach.
- kaṭhina — the robe offering
- The offering of cloth for new robes at the end of the rains.
- samādhi — a gathered mind
- Steadiness of attention; the fruit of the second training.
- paññā — wisdom
- Seeing clearly how things actually work — judgement, not cleverness.
- dukkha — suffering, unsatisfactoriness
- The strain in experience that the teaching begins by naming.
- ehipassiko — come and see for yourself
- A quality of the teaching: it invites testing.
- añjali — palms placed together
- A gesture of respect. Optional for visitors.
- Vinaya — the monastic discipline
- The rules by which monastics live, including that they handle no money.
- sutta — discourse
- A recorded talk or conversation of the Buddha. We link to translations rather than reproducing them.
- bhikkhu / bhikkhunī — monk / nun
- Fully ordained monastics. 'Venerable' is always a correct form of address.