arhat
/ˈɑː(ɹ)hæt/noun
arhat is a noun meaning “One who has attained enlightenment; a Buddhist saint” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-R-H-A-T, and it appears about once in every 29 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of arhat is arhats.
What does arhat mean?
noun
- 1
One who has attained enlightenment; a Buddhist saint.
- 2
One of the stages of the ascetic's spiritual evolution, when all passions (anger, ego, deception, greed, attachment, hatred and ignorance) are destroyed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce arhat?
- /ˈɑː(ɹ)hæt/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-arhat.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of arhat
- arhats plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is arhat?
Arhat appears about once in every 29 million words in written English, the 163,711th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Arhat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a Buddhist saint:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | arhat |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does arhat come from?
Transliteration of Sanskrit अर्हत् (arhat, “worthy of worship”), used as a title for sanctified Buddhists. Doublet of arahant and arihant.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).