name
Meaning 1
A female given name.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
karma
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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India, North: /kərm(ə)/
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India, North: [kɐɾm(ɐ)]
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India, South: /kərma/
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India, South: [kɐɾmä(ː)]
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UK, US: /ˈkɑː(ɹ).mə/
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rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)mə
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homophone: cama
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homophone: calmer (non-rhotic)
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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CMU ARPABET: K AA1 R M AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
The sum total of a person's actions, which determine the person's next incarnation in samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, countable, uncountable
Topics: Buddhism, lifestyle, religion
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A force or law of nature which causes one to reap what one sows; destiny; fate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A distinctive feeling, aura, or atmosphere.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncommon, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A score assigned to a user or post on some discussion forums, indicating popularity or perceived value.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Internet, countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
(Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: destiny, fate
History
Etymology
Borrowed from Sanskrit कर्म (kárma), nom.sg. of कर्मन् (kárman, “act, action, performance”); first attested in English in 1785 in a translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Charles Wilkins.
Across languages
Translations
84 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Arabic: كَارْمَا (kārmā) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Armenian: կարմա (karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Belarusian: ка́рма (kárma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Bengali: কর্মফল (kormophol) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Bulgarian: ка́рма (kárma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Burmese: ကံ (kam) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Burmese: ကြမ္မာ (kramma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Catalan: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Chinese Mandarin: 因果報應 /因果报应 (yīnguǒbàoyìng) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Chinese Mandarin: 業 /业 (yè) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Chinese Mandarin: 羯磨 (jiémó) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Czech: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Dutch: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Esperanto: karmo — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Finnish: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- French: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- West-Frisian: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Georgian: კარმა (ḳarma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- German: Karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Greek: κάρμα (kárma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Hebrew: קארמה (kárma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Hindi: कर्म (karm) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Hungarian: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Icelandic: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Icelandic: endurgjaldslögmál — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Japanese: 業 (gō) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Japanese: カルマ (karuma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Japanese: 羯磨 (katsuma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Kannada: ಕರ್ಮ (karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Khmer: កម្ម (kam) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Korean: 업 (eop) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Korean: 카르마 (kareuma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Kyrgyz: карма (karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Lao: ກໍາ (kam) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Lithuanian: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Macedonian: карма (karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Malay: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Malayalam: കർമ്മം (kaṟmmaṁ) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Occitan: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Pali: kamma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Parthian: 𐫐𐫡𐫖 — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Persian: کارما (kârmâ) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Persian: کرمه (karme) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Polish: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Polish: karman — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Portuguese: carma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Portuguese: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Punjabi: ਕਰਮ (karam) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Russian: ка́рма (kárma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Sanskrit: कर्मन् (karman) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Sinhalese: කර්ම (karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Sogdian: 𐫐𐫡𐫖 — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Sogdian: 𐫞𐫡𐫖 — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Spanish: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Swedish: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Tagalog: karma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Tamil: கர்மம் (karmam) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Tamil: வினை (viṉai) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Telugu: కర్మ (karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Thai: กรรม (gam) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Tibetan: ལས (las) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Tocharian B: yāmor — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Turkish: dakka dukka — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Turkish: eden bulur — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Ukrainian: ка́рма (kárma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Urdu: کرم (karm, karma) — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Vietnamese: nghiệp — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Vietnamese: nghiệp chướng — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Vietnamese: yết-ma — the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of his existence
- Chinese Mandarin: 緣分 /缘分 (yuánfèn) — destiny, fate
- Czech: osud — destiny, fate
- Dutch: karma — destiny, fate
- Finnish: kohtalo — destiny, fate
- German: Schicksal — destiny, fate
- Lithuanian: likimas — destiny, fate
- Portuguese: carma — destiny, fate
- Portuguese: karma — destiny, fate
- Russian: ка́рма (kárma) — destiny, fate
- Spanish: karma — destiny, fate
- Swedish: karma — destiny, fate
- Turkish: kader — destiny, fate
- Turkish: takdir — destiny, fate
- Finnish: kohtalo — distinctive feeling, aura or atmosphere
- Portuguese: clima — distinctive feeling, aura or atmosphere
Real reading context