nirvana

[nir-vah-nuh, -van-uh, ner-] /nɪrˈvɑ nə, -ˈvæn ə, nər-/
noun
1.
(often initial capital letter). Pali nibbana. Buddhism. freedom from the endless cycle of personal reincarnations, with their consequent suffering, as a result of the extinction of individual passion, hatred, and delusion: attained by the Arhat as his goal but postponed by the Bodhisattva.
2.
(often initial capital letter) Hinduism. salvation through the union of Atman with Brahma; moksha.
3.
a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world.
Origin
1830-40; < Sanskrit nirvāṇa
Related forms
nirvanic, adjective
Examples from the web for nirvana
  • You'll never get to nirvana like that.
  • My son and I have discovered nirvana in the desert.
  • Already many concertgoers and critics have proclaimed it acoustical nirvana.
  • Melis is one of many researchers around the world vying to reach hydrogen nirvana.
  • The surround sound was good but no aural nirvana.
  • Others arrived during the hippie back-to-nature days, in search of nirvana and cheap land.
  • For some people, a state of deep focus is office nirvana.
  • nirvana do i call it the utter extinction of aging and dying.
British Dictionary definitions for nirvana

nirvana

/nɪəˈvɑːnə; nɜː-/
noun
1.
(Buddhism, Hinduism) final release from the cycle of reincarnation attained by extinction of all desires and individual existence, culminating (in Buddhism) in absolute blessedness, or (in Hinduism) in absorption into Brahman
Derived Forms
nirvanic, adjective
Word Origin
C19: from Sanskrit: extinction, literally: a blowing out, from nir- out + vāti it blows
Word Origin and History for nirvana
n.

1836, from Sanskrit nirvana-s "extinction, disappearance" (of the individual soul into the universal), literally "to blow out, a blowing out" ("not transitively, but as a fire ceases to draw;" a literal Latinization would be de-spiration), from nis-, nir- "out" + va- "to blow" (see wind (n.1)). Figurative sense of "perfect bliss" is from 1895.

nirvana in Culture
nirvana [(neer-vah-nuh, nur-vah-nuh)]

In Buddhism, the highest state of consciousness, in which the soul is freed from all desires and attachments. Nirvana is sometimes inaccurately used as a synonym for heaven or paradise.