The following table indicates Pali words, their usual English translations, better translations, and comments on what is actually meant in the suttas:

Pali	Usual English	Better Translation	Comments
dukkha	suffering; stress; unsatisfactoriness	dukkha; bummer; not-ultimately-satisfying	Dukkha is best left untranslated. It does mean both "suffering" and "stress", and it also means "unsatisfactoriness" - basically "getting what you don't want" and "not getting what you do want". It also is a quality of all created things that make each and every one of them "not a reliable source of happiness," "not a source of lasting happiness." It covers all those little niggling feelings that every thing is "not ultimately satisfying" If you really want an English word, you can play with the slang "bummer" - but remember the "flaw" of "not a reliable source of happiness" as part of dukkha's quality, too
vedanā	feeling	vedanā; valence	Vedanā does NOT mean emotions - it means simply pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant. It is the first impression a sense contact makes: "it is pleasing" or "it is not pleasing" or "it is neither". Emotions are mental formations (sankhāra) not vedanā.
saññā	perception	conceptualization; perception; recognition; ideation; cognition; (and sometimes) consciousness	Saññā refers to the ability of the mind to name, identify, conceptualize a sense impression. It's the conceptualizing & labeling of our experiences. We experience a sense contact which generates a vedanā and then we conceptualize the experience and manipulate it with other concepts to "make together" our sankhārā - see MN 18 for more on this process. For a modern scientific description, see Christine Skarda's The Perceptual Form of Life.   Sometimes tho, saññā is used as a synonym for "consciousness," see e.g. DN 9.
sankhāra	formations; compounded things; intentions; mental activity	concoctions; fabrications	Sankhāra gets translated in a number of ways depending on the context. But the Buddha used a single word in all those contexts! Better translations would be "concoctions" or "fabrications". Both of these words fit in all those contexts and also have the sense of "not quite true" which I think is an important aspect of sankhāra. It literally means "making together" so it refers to anything that is constructed. In the teaching of the 5 khaṇḍas it refers to thoughts, emotions, memories & intentions - all mental activities other than vedanā, saññā and viññāṇa.
viññāṇa	consciousness	cognition, consciousness; mind (sometimes)	"Consciousness" is a good translation - in most instances. But viññāṇa literally means "divided knowing" and occasionally this literal meaning is what is meant - e.g. the last line of the verses at the end of DN 11. Viññāṇa is sometimes used to mean "mind" as in "this body (kāya) with its consciousness (viññāṇa)" - e.g. MN 109.13 & DN 2.85 (Insight Knowledge). But "consciousness" has it's limitations - after all, what exactly is your definition of "consciousness?" I'll bet it involves something like "the part of the mind that cognizes." So why not just go with "cognition" or "cognizing" in the first place?
ajāta, abhūta, akata, asaṅkhata	the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned	without birth, without beings, without made things, without fabrications (or "free of" instead of "without")	This famous description of nibbana often gets mistranslated. There cannot be any "a", "an" or "the" - Pali doesn't have articles. Furthermore, "unconditioned" for "asaṅkhata" is particularly bad. "Asaṅkhata" is the negative of the past participle of sankhāra (see above), it literally means (a) without (saṅkhata) concocted or fabricated. Nibbana is therefore the opposite of Samsara which has birth, beings, made things and fabricated things. The difference, however, is not ontologically, but percepetive - see verse 874 of Snp 4.11 and the verses at the end of DN 11.
dhātu	element	aspect; characteristic	"Element" implies an existing thing - a mistake the Abhidhamma makes. See MN 115.4-9 where there are many kinds of elements given, given in terms of aspects or characteristics. See also PTS PED for dhātu, 2.a: "natural condition, property, disposition; factor, item, principle, form."
mettā	loving-kindness; friendliness	unconditional love; unconditional kindness	"Loving-kindness" is a good translation, but a bit on the wimpy side. Mettā is the same as the Greek agape which is best translated as "unconditional love" - loving someone just because they are a someone, not because of what they can or might or did do for you.
muditā	sympathetic joy; empathetic joy; joy at the good fortune of others	appreciative joy	The later commentaries indicate that one only feels muditā for others - but the suttas indicate that one does all 4 Brahma Vihara practices for oneself as well as others. Thus "appreciative joy" more closely captures this emotion.
anukampā	compassion	care	There is a difference between compassion and care. Compassion (karuṇā) is the feeling that motivates acting to alleviate suffering, thus suffering is required. Care however has a much broader field of application - you can act with care towards someone who is not suffering - think of a grandmother caring for her grandchild who is having a wonderful time playing in the park. Anukampā is what the world needs more of now instead of all the fear, hate and division. There are a multitude of places in the suttas where anukampā is translated as "compassion," but what the Buddha really meant was the more encompassing "care."
nibbidā	disenchantment; revulsion; disgust	disenchantment	"Revulsion" and "disgust" have too strong a negative connotation. "Disenchantment" is much better - one experiencing nibbidā towards X is no longer enchanted by X, the spell (enchantment) has been broken.
uddhacca & kukkucca	restless & worry	restless & remorse	Kukkucca is "worry" only in the sense of regretting having done something in the past that was unskillful; better to translate it as "remorse." Worry about the future comes under aversion (the 2nd hindrance).
vitakka & vicāra	thinking & pondering; initial attention & sustained attention	thinking & examining/pondering	In the suttas, these two definitely mean "thinking" and "pondering"/"examining." However according to the commentaries, when they are used in the description of the 1st Jhana, they mean "initial attention to the meditation subject" and "sustained attention on the meditation subject". But there is much evidence in the suttas that the commentaries are wrong - see for example SN 21.1 and SN 40.1.
pīti	rapture; euphoria; ecstasy; interest; pleasure; joy	glee	Pīti comes in many grades and shades, most of the usual translations can possibly apply. But it has an excited quality to it that "glee" captures better than any of the usual translations. The frequent translation of pīti as "joy," especially in connection to the 7 Factors of Awakening, completely misses the point!
satipaṭṭhāna	foundation of mindfulness	looking after mindfulness establishment of mindfulness	Altho "foundations" is traditional, but it's not really accurate. Satipaṭṭhana is probably a compound of sati + upaṭṭhāna. According to the PTS PED, upaṭṭhāna means "attendance, waiting on, looking after, service, care, ministering". So the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta would be "The Discourse on Looking After Mindfulness" or "The Discourse on Taking Care of Mindfulness"
bhava	existence; being; becoming	becoming	"Becoming" captures the broader sense of bhava much better. See Thanissaro Bhikkhu's excellent book on becoming.
saddha	faith	confidence; trust	It's definitely Not blind faith; it's confidence based on experience.
hiri	moral shame	personal integrity	"I wouldn't do that because I have integrity."
ottappa	moral dread	ethical conscience	"I wouldn't do that because the possible consequences." "I wouldn't do that because others would censure me."
amata	deathless	without death; timelessness	Amata literally means "without death," but in classical Vedic texts this refers to an essential timelessness preceding and underlying the world of human experience. At times, the Buddha perhaps used the word in this way also - experience of and in "the ceasely changing now."
upādāna-kkhandha	clinging aggregates	bundles of fuel heaps of fuel	The five aggregates (khandha) of human experience that define the phenomenal person are the fuel (upādāna) for the 3 fires of greed, hatred and delusion.
atammayatā	non-identification	non-concocting; non-fashioning	Literally: "not made of that", which implies that "non-identification" would be less helpful than "non-concocting"/"non-fashioning". The quality of experience prior to, or without, subject/object duality.
āsava	outflow; taint; effluent; canker; fermentation	intoxicant	From the PTS Pali-English Dictionary: "technical term for certain specified ideas which intoxicate the mind (bemuddle it, befoozle it, so that it cannot rise to higher things). Freedom from the 'Āsavas' constitutes Arahantship."
tathāgata	the Tathāgata	a tathāgata one-arrived-at-Truth	Often said to be how the Buddha refered to himself. However this assumes he was saying "the Tathāgata" - but there aren't any articles ("a", "an" or "the") in Pali. It seems more likely the Buddha was refering to "one who has arrived at Truth" (i.e. an awkaened one) rather than using it specifically to refer to himself. Tathāgata seems to be somewhat the same as arahant - tho perhaps with overtones of "a fully realized one," and/or "a spiritually perfected one."

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Leigh Brasington / / Revised 18 Dec 23