Buddhist

How to spell buddhist

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce buddhist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does buddhist mean?

1. nounA person who follows Buddhism, the religion and philosophy founded on the teachings of the Buddha.
2. adjectiveRelating to Buddhism, its followers, or its teachings.

Buddhist in a sentence

• noun

  As a practising buddhist, she meditates every morning before work.

• adjective

  The museum displayed several ancient buddhist statues from Tibet.

• noun

  The monastery welcomed every buddhist travelling through the region.

• adjective

  They attended a quiet buddhist retreat in the mountains.

Where does buddhist come from?

Language of origin: Sanskrit

This word descends from the Sanskrit buddha, which literally means 'awakened' or 'enlightened one', built on the verbal root budh, meaning 'to awaken', 'to perceive', or 'to come to know'. It was the title given to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the religion, because his followers regarded him as the one who had woken from the sleep of ignorance. European languages added the familiar agent suffix -ist to produce a word for an adherent of his teaching, and English adopted the form in the early nineteenth century as Western scholars began studying Asian religion in earnest. The tricky spelling, with its double d followed by a silent h, preserves the Sanskrit consonant cluster dh, a single aspirated sound that English has no neat way of writing. Remembering that the word is simply Buddha plus -ist explains both the doubled d and that easily forgotten h.

How the word is built

• Buddh- (from Sanskrit buddha: awakened one)
• -ist (follower/adherent suffix)