arhat means one who has attained enlightenment; a Buddhist saint. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
arhat is pronounced /ˈɑː(ɹ)hæt/.
Why “arhat” is a great word
ARHAT — [Noun] In Buddhism, one who has attained enlightenment and is freed from the cycle of rebirth, having destroyed all passions and defilements. From Sanskrit अर्हत् (arhat, "worthy of worship, deserving"), from the root arh- ("to deserve, merit"). First attested in English use 1865–70. Unlike a bodhisattva, who renounces final nirvana to guide all beings, or an arahant, its linguistically specific Pali counterpart, the arhat embodies the serene culmination of a personal quest. He is the cooled ash of a once-raging fire, the silent monastery bell that will never be struck again, and the perfect stillness of a stone statue after the last worshipper has left—a monument not to ambition, but to its absence.
noun
- One who has attained enlightenment; a Buddhist saint.“1954: Over and against the arhat, retreating from appearances into an entirely transcendental Nirvana, stands the Bodhisattva, for whom Suchness and the world of contingencies are one — Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (Chatto & Windus 1954, p. 32)”
- One of the stages of the ascetic's spiritual evolution, when all passions (anger, ego, deception, greed, attachment, hatred and ignorance) are destroyed.