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Oct 29, 2003

This week's theme
Words derived from Sanskrit

This week's words
karma
avatar
nirvana
pundit
juggernaut

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nirvana

nirvana (nir-VAH-nuh) noun

1. Freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death and related suffering.
2. An idealized state or place free of pain, worries, etc.

[From Sanskrit nirvana (blowing out, extinguishing, extinction), from nis- (out) + vati (it blows). Ultimately from the Indo-European root we- (to blow) that is also the source of wind, weather, ventilate, window and wing.]

"'Hawaii looks like nirvana' compared to the rest of the country, said Emily Friedman, a Chicago-based health policy analyst who authored a history on the island health care system."
Matt Sedensky; Hawaii's Uninsured Population; Star Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii); Oct 22, 2003.

See more usage examples of nirvana in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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