nir·va·na

[nir-vah-nuh, -van-uh, ner-]
noun
1.
( often initial capital letter ) . Pali nibbana. Buddhism. freedom from the endless cycle of personal reincarnations, with their consequent suffering, as a result of the extinction of individual passion, hatred, and delusion: attained by the Arhat as his goal but postponed by the Bodhisattva.
2.
( often initial capital letter ) Hinduism. salvation through the union of Atman with Brahma; moksha.
3.
a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world.

Origin:
1830–40; < Sanskrit nirvāṇa

nir·va·nic, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
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Collins
World English Dictionary
nirvana (nɪəˈvɑːnə, nɜː-) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
Buddhism, Hinduism final release from the cycle of reincarnation attained by extinction of all desires and individual existence, culminating (in Buddhism) in absolute blessedness, or (in Hinduism) in absorption into Brahman
 
[C19: from Sanskrit: extinction, literally: a blowing out, from nir- out + vāti it blows]
 
nir'vanic
 
adj

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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00:10
Nirvana is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

nirvana
1836, from Skt. nirvana-s "extinction, disappearance" (of the individual soul into the universal), lit. "to blow out, a blowing out" ("not transitively, but as a fire ceases to draw;" a literal Latinization would be de-spiration), from nis-, nir- "out" + va "to blow" (see wind (n.)).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
nirvana [(neer-vah-nuh, nur-vah-nuh)]

In Buddhism, the highest state of consciousness, in which the soul is freed from all desires and attachments. Nirvana is sometimes inaccurately used as a synonym for heaven or paradise.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
For some people, a state of deep focus is office nirvana.
Melis is one of many researchers around the world vying to reach hydrogen
  nirvana.
You'll never get to nirvana like that.
Others arrived during the hippie back-to-nature days, in search of nirvana and
  cheap land.
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