Mahayana
/ˌmɑːhəˈjɑːnə/
"mahayana" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Mahayana” is uncommon English (frequency #56,893 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,893
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One of the two primary branches of Buddhism that emerged around the 1st century BCE, which accepts non-Pali canon scriptures, and emphasizes the path of bodhisattva.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Mahayana |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˌmɑːhəˈjɑːnə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #56,893 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Mahayana” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Mahayana is uncommon English at frequency #56,893 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˌmɑːhəˈjɑːnə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One of the two primary branches of Buddhism that emerged around the 1st century BCE, which accepts non-Pali canon scriptures, and emphasizes the path of bodhisattva.".
Mahayana has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Sanskrit महायान (mahāyāna, literally “Great Vehicle”). The correct English form is Mahayana, spelled M-A-H-A-Y-A-N-A.
Definition
- 1One of the two primary branches of Buddhism that emerged around the 1st century BCE, which accepts non-Pali canon scriptures, and emphasizes the path of bodhisattva.
Etymology
Borrowed from Sanskrit महायान (mahāyāna, literally “Great Vehicle”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Mahayana”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-H-A-Y-A-N-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌmɑːhəˈjɑːnə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.