Word.ws English Dictionary

Kannon

Kannon proper noun: kannon, the Japanese version of Guanyin, the Chinese translation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of mercy and compassion.

kannon: kannon, the Japanese version of Guanyin, the Chinese translation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva...
Image: Haa900, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Kannon

  1. Kannon, the Japanese version of Guanyin, the Chinese translation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of mercy and compassion.
    • “A long time ago, Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, made a deep vow to free all beings and help us wake up to our true and luminous nature.”2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 413

Forms of Kannon

alternative form (dated)Kwannon

Origin of Kannon

From Japanese 観音 (Kannon), from Middle Chinese 觀音 (MC kwan 'im), a translation of Sanskrit अवलोकितेश्वर (avalokiteśvara).

Questions about Kannon

What does Kannon mean?
Kannon means kannon, the Japanese version of Guanyin, the Chinese translation of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of mercy and compassion.
What part of speech is Kannon?
Kannon is a proper noun.

Words near Kannon in the dictionary

  1. Kannes
  2. kannibalism
  3. Kannigilla
  4. kannizzati
  5. Kanno
  6. Kannon
  7. Kannos
  8. Kanns
  9. Kannstatt
  10. Kannur
  11. kanny

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kannon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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