karma

kar·ma  (kärm)

n.

1. Hinduism & Buddhism The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.

2. Fate; destiny.

3. Informal A distinctive aura, atmosphere, or feeling: There's bad karma around the house today.

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[Sanskrit, deed, action that has consequences, karma; see k^wer- in Indo-European roots.]

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karmic (-mk) adj.

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karma

Noun

Hinduism, Buddhism a person's actions affecting his or her fate in the next reincarnation [Sanskrit: action, effect]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

karma - (Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation Hindooism, Hinduism - a body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and based on a caste system; it is characterized by a belief in reincarnation, by a belief in a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils Buddhism - the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth destiny, fate - an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future