First recorded in 1830–40; from Sanskrit Amitābha- “Infinite Light,” equivalent to amita “infinite, boundless” + ābhā “light, splendor”
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ms. Lhamo yelled at the knocked-down nun, looking straight into her eyes outside a whitewashed temple in the Druk Amitabha nunnery on a hill overlooking Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2023
Amitabha Panda, the state’s top statistician, said reasons included lack of registration centers, outdated data collection methods and wariness of extending outreach to areas where Maoist rebels held sway.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 16, 2017
One evening in March, Amitabha Mukherjee, an engineering manager at Parsons Brinckerhoff, the firm supervising construction at Second Avenue, led a small group through a tunnel headed from 69th Street toward 63rd.
From New York Times • Aug. 1, 2012
There in their solemn shrines stood the statues of the Arahats, and there, seated on his white elephant, loomed immense and dim, the image of Amitabha, the Lord of the Western Heavens.
From Trivia by Smith, Logan Pearsall
He founded the Society of the White Lotus, which comprised eighteen eminent scholars of the age among its members, for the purpose of practising Meditation and of adoring Buddha Amitabha.
From The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan by Nukariya, Kaiten
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
