What does arhat mean?
An arhat is, in Buddhist belief, someone who has reached the highest goal of the spiritual path: full awakening, in which greed, hatred, and delusion are extinguished and rebirth comes to an end. The ideal is central to Theravada Buddhism, where the arhat represents the culmination of monastic discipline and meditative insight, and it also appears in Mahayana tradition, where groups of arhats—often counted as sixteen or eighteen—are honored as guardians of the Buddha's teaching and depicted in temple sculpture and painting across East Asia. In everyday English the word is rare and scholarly, surfacing mostly in discussions of religion, meditation, and Asian art rather than casual conversation. It carries connotations of serenity, moral perfection, and hard-won spiritual attainment. Related terms include the Pali 'arahant', which refers to the same figure, and the Chinese 'luohan', the artistic counterpart familiar from temple iconography.
nounIn Buddhism, a person—especially in Theravada tradition—who has attained enlightenment by following the Buddha's teachings and has thereby been liberated from the cycle of rebirth.
- A person, especially in Theravada Buddhism, who has achieved complete enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of rebirth through following the Buddha's teaching.
- In Mahayana art and folklore, any of a group of venerated disciples of the Buddha (often numbered sixteen or eighteen) depicted as guardians of the law.
"The monastery's murals depict an arhat seated in meditation, serene and free of worldly desire."
"After decades of disciplined practice, the monk was recognized by his teachers as an arhat."
"The temple hall houses gilded statues of the eighteen arhats, each with a distinct expression and pose."
The standard plural is 'arhats'; in art-historical contexts the singular may be retained after numerals, as in 'the eighteen arhat'.
"The gallery displayed statues of several arhats, each carved from a single block of sandalwood."
In Chinese temples, the arhat is often rendered as 'Luohan'—and legend says some of these enlightened masters hid so well that they are still secretly walking among us.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of arhat
The word derives from Sanskrit 'arhat', meaning 'worthy' or 'deserving', formed from the root 'arh-' signifying merit or worthiness. It entered English in the early nineteenth century through translations of and scholarship on Buddhist texts, alongside its close Pali relative 'arahant'. In Chinese the concept was rendered as 'luohan' (羅漢), giving rise to the familiar painted and sculpted figures of East Asian temples, and related forms appear across other languages touched by Buddhist transmission.
Related word forms
How arhat is actually used
The word belongs to religious and scholarly registers; it appears mainly in writing about Buddhism, Asian art, and comparative religion. In Theravada contexts the Pali equivalent 'arahant' is often preferred, while 'arhat' is the usual Sanskrit-derived form in English. The plural is typically 'arhats', though 'arhat' is occasionally left uninflected after numerals in art-historical writing.
Easily confused with arhat
A bodhisattva vows to postpone final nirvana in order to help all beings achieve enlightenment, whereas an arhat seeks and attains liberation for himself.
'Arahant' is simply the Pali form of the same term, used chiefly in Theravada texts, while 'arhat' is the Sanskrit form common in English writing.