Free Chinese & Japanese Online Dictionary

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Key:

Mandarin Chinese information.
Old Wade-Giles romanization used only in Taiwan.
Japanese information.
Buddhist definition. Note: May not apply to all sects.
 Definition may be different outside of Buddhism.

There are 5 total results for your life is but a dream search.

Characters Pronunciation
Romanization
Simple Dictionary Definition

大夢


大梦

see styles
dà mèng
    da4 meng4
ta meng
 hiromu
    ひろむ

More info & calligraphy:

Big Dream
(female given name) Hiromu
The great dream, "the dream of life," this life, the world.

人生如夢


人生如梦

see styles
rén shēng rú mèng
    ren2 sheng1 ru2 meng4
jen sheng ju meng

More info & calligraphy:

Life Is But A Dream
life is but a dream (idiom)

夢幻泡影


梦幻泡影

see styles
mèng huàn pào yǐng
    meng4 huan4 pao4 ying3
meng huan p`ao ying
    meng huan pao ying
 mugenhouyou / mugenhoyo
    むげんほうよう
(Buddhism) illusion; pipe dream
(yoji) (from the Diamond Sutra) a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow (metaphor for the transience of life)
dream, illusion, bubble, shadow

凡夫十重妄

see styles
fán fū shí zhòng wàng
    fan2 fu1 shi2 zhong4 wang4
fan fu shih chung wang
 bonbu jū jūmō
The serious misfortunes of the sinful man in whom the Ālaya-vijñāna, the fundamental intelligence, or life force, of everyman, is still unenlightened; they are compared to ten progressive stages of a dream in which a rich man sees himself become poor and in prison.

Variations:
浮世は夢
浮き世は夢

see styles
 ukiyohayume
    うきよはゆめ
(expression) (proverb) (See 浮世・1) life is but a dream; this too shall pass; everything is transient

Entries with 2nd row of characters: The 2nd row is Simplified Chinese.

This page contains 5 results for "life is but a dream" in Chinese and/or Japanese.



Information about this dictionary:

Apparently, we were the first ones who were crazy enough to think that western people might want a combined Chinese, Japanese, and Buddhist dictionary.

A lot of westerners can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese - and there is a reason for that. Chinese characters and even whole words were borrowed by Japan from the Chinese language in the 5th century. Much of the time, if a word or character is used in both languages, it will have the same or a similar meaning. However, this is not always true. Language evolves, and meanings independently change in each language.

Example: The Chinese character 湯 for soup (hot water) has come to mean bath (hot water) in Japanese. They have the same root meaning of "hot water", but a 湯屋 sign on a bathhouse in Japan would lead a Chinese person to think it was a "soup house" or a place to get a bowl of soup. See this: Japanese Bath House

This dictionary uses the EDICT and CC-CEDICT dictionary files.
EDICT data is the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, and is used in conformance with the Group's license.

Chinese Buddhist terms come from Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous. This is commonly referred to as "Soothill's'". It was first published in 1937 (and is now off copyright so we can use it here). Some of these definitions may be misleading, incomplete, or dated, but 95% of it is good information. Every professor who teaches Buddhism or Eastern Religion has a copy of this on their bookshelf. We incorporated these 16,850 entries into our dictionary database ourselves (it was lot of work).



Combined, these cover 1,007,753 Japanese, Chinese, and Buddhist characters, words, idioms, names, placenames, and short phrases.

Just because a word appears here does not mean it is appropriate for a tattoo, your business name, etc. Please consult a professional before doing anything stupid with this data.

We do offer Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Services. We'll also be happy to help you translate something for other purposes.

No warranty as to the correctness, potential vulgarity, or clarity is expressed or implied. We did not write any of these definitions (though we occasionally act as a contributor/editor to the CC-CEDICT project). You are using this dictionary for free, and you get what you pay for.

The following titles are just to help people who are searching for an Asian dictionary to find this page.

Japanese Kanji Dictionary

Free Asian Dictionary

Chinese Kanji Dictionary

Chinese Words Dictionary

Chinese Language Dictionary

Japanese Chinese Dictionary