Theravada
/ˌtɛrəˈvɑːdə/
Theravada proper noun: the oldest surviving school of Buddhism based on the earliest recorded teachings of the historical Buddha found in the Pali canon, widely practised in Southeast Asia.
Proper noun
Theravada
Noun
Theravada (plural Theravadas)
- A Buddhist of this particular school.
Theravada meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
Theravada in Hindi
- school of Buddhism
- थेरवाद thervād, स्थविरवाद sthavirvād
Theravada in Tamil
- school of Buddhism
- தேரவாதம் tēravātam, ஸ்தவிரவாதம் staviravātam
Theravada in Marathi
- school of Buddhism
- थेरवाद thervād, स्थविरवाद sthavirvād
Theravada in Bengali
- school of Buddhism
- থেরবাদ therbad
More languagesFewer languages
- Theravada in Telugu
- థేరవాదం thēravādaṁ
- Theravada in Malayalam
- ഥേരാവാദ ബുദ്ധമതം thērāvāda buddhamataṁ, സ്ഥവിരവാദം sthaviravādaṁ
- Theravada in Sanskrit
- स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda
- Theravada in Nepali
- थेरवाद theravād, स्थविरवाद sthaviravād
- Theravada in Indonesian
- Therawada
- Theravada in Thai
- เถรวาท těe-rá-wâat
- Theravada in Vietnamese
- Thượng toạ bộ
- Theravada in Myanmar
- ထေရဝါဒ htera.wada.
Forms of Theravada
| plural | Theravadas |
|---|
Origin of Theravada
Transliteration of Pali theravāda, inherited from Sanskrit स्थविरवाद (sthaviravāda, literally “doctrine of the elders”), from स्थविर (sthavira, “elder”) + वाद (vāda, “doctrine”).
Words formed from Theravada
- Esoteric Theravada
- Theravadan
Questions about Theravada
- What does Theravada mean?
- Theravada means the oldest surviving school of Buddhism based on the earliest recorded teachings of the historical Buddha found in the Pali canon, widely practised in Southeast Asia.
- What is Theravada in Hindi?
- Theravada in Hindi is थेरवाद (thervād), स्थविरवाद (sthavirvād). See Theravada meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Theravada?
- Theravada can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce Theravada?
- Theravada is pronounced /ˌtɛrəˈvɑːdə/.
Words near Theravada in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Theravada (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Theravada.wav.
Cite this entry: “Theravada.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/theravada. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.