Bodhisattva
noun /ˌbɒdɪˈsɑːtvə/
/ˌbəʊdɪˈsɑːtvə/
- (in Mahayana Buddhism) a person who is able to reach nirvana (= a state of peace and happiness) but who delays doing this because of the suffering of other humansTopics Religion and festivalsc2Word OriginSanskrit, ‘a person whose essence is perfect knowledge’, from bodhi ‘perfect knowledge’ (from budh- ‘know perfectly’) + sattva ‘being, essence’.