zen
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A school of Mahayana Buddhism having sudden enlightenment achieved by indirect means and principally associated with China and Japan.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
zehnIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈzɛn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
religion
A school of Mahayana Buddhism characterized by sudden enlightenment achieved by indirect means and principally associated with China and Japan.
An approach to instruction, understanding, or an activity similarly emphasizing simplicity and intuition rather than conventional thinking or fixation on goals.
adjective
colloquial
Wise, displaying enlightenment or similar wisdom, insightful, unburdened and free of worries, extremely relaxed and capable.
colloquial
Alternative letter-case form of zen.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A school of Mahayana Buddhism characterized by sudden enlightenment achieved by indirect means and principally associated with China and Japan.
Used this way, zen is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Sudden and forceful
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
- Education/classroom
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: school of Mahayana Buddhism characterized by sudden enlightenment achieved by indirect means and principally associated with China and Japan
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.