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• Bon
  Bon

  noun

  Cape, a cape on the NE coast of Tunisia: surrender of the German African forces, May 12, 1943.
• Bön
  Bön

  noun

  a shamanistic Tibetan sect, absorbed by the first Buddhist sects of the 7th century and later.

Bon

¹ American  

[bon, bawn] / bɒn, bɔ̃ /

noun

1. Cape, a cape on the NE coast of Tunisia: surrender of the German African forces, May 12, 1943.

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Bon ² American  

[bawn] / bɔn /

noun

1. an annual festival of the Japanese Buddhists, welcoming ancestral spirits to household altars.

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Bön ³ American  

[bohn] / boʊn /

noun

1. a shamanistic Tibetan sect, absorbed by the first Buddhist sects of the 7th century and later.

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Bon ¹ British  

/ bɔːn /

noun

1. Also called: Feast of Lanterns.   Festival of Lanterns.  an annual festival celebrated by Japanese Buddhists

2. 1. the pre-Buddhist priests of Tibet or one such priest

   2. their religion

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Bon ² British  

/ bɒn /

noun

1. a peninsula of NE Tunisia

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Etymology

Origin of Bon

< Japanese, originally Urabon < Chinese version of Sanskrit ullambana literally, hanging upside down (a metaphor for the suffering brought on by physical desires)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Bon Bön

US rockers Bon Jovi have been performing their Forever Tour at the north London venue and played three sold-out shows on Friday, Sunday and Wednesday.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

In his decades in the industry, including in senior roles at Au Bon Pain and Le Pain Quotidien, among others, Tipton has found that food businesses attract the first type, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

Mount Kailash is also sacred to Buddhists, Jains and followers of Bon, a pre-Buddhist religion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

Rock superstar Jon Bon Jovi was an interested spectator at Brentford v Spurs.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

Now it is Bon who does not answer, who sits on the log looking at the face stooped above him.

From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner

Although it hardly comes within the scope of the present study, I may mention that there is also some non-Buddhist literature in Tibet, sometimes described as scriptures of the Bön religion and sometimes as folklore.

From Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 by Sir Charles Eliot