Karuna

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term from Buddhist tradition meaning compassionate love or kindness towards others
2. The quality of empathy and wishing to relieve suffering, found in Buddhist teachings
3. A concept in Buddhism that emphasizes caring deeply for the well-being of all beings

Etymology: Sanskrit "करुणा" (karuṇā) meant "compassion" or "kindness," and English borrowed the word directly from that language, so its path into English skipped Latin and Greek entirely. Its root is tied to the idea of pity and grief, a sense that hints at how closely early Indian thought linked compassion with feeling another's pain. In English, "karuna" remains a loanword rather than a worn-in everyday term. Its use is mostly found in writing about Buddhism and Hinduism, where it names one of the qualities of an ideal, compassionate mind. Because it was taken straight from Sanskrit, it keeps the spelling and the sense of the original rather than being reshaped by English usage.

Synonyms: compassion