"monkey mind" meaning in English

See monkey mind in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: From Chinese 心猿 (xīnyuán) or Japanese 心猿 (shin'en) which both literally mean "heart-mind monkey". Etymology templates: {{der|en|zh|心猿}} Chinese 心猿, {{der|en|ja|心猿}} Japanese 心猿 Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} monkey mind
  1. (Buddhism) A Buddhist concept that describes the state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control of one's thoughts. Synonyms: mind monkey, monkey of the mind
    Sense id: en-monkey_mind-en-noun-rIS3vTx~ Categories (other): Buddhism, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 98 2 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 97 3 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 97 3 Topics: Buddhism, lifestyle, religion
  2. (literal) The mind of a monkey.
    Sense id: en-monkey_mind-en-noun-MngaptRC
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "zh",
        "3": "心猿"
      },
      "expansion": "Chinese 心猿",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "心猿"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese 心猿",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Chinese 心猿 (xīnyuán) or Japanese 心猿 (shin'en) which both literally mean \"heart-mind monkey\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "monkey mind",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Buddhism",
          "orig": "en:Buddhism",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "98 2",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "97 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "97 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A Buddhist concept that describes the state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control of one's thoughts."
      ],
      "id": "en-monkey_mind-en-noun-rIS3vTx~",
      "links": [
        [
          "Buddhism",
          "Buddhism"
        ],
        [
          "concept",
          "concept"
        ],
        [
          "restlessness",
          "restlessness"
        ],
        [
          "capriciousness",
          "capriciousness"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Buddhism) A Buddhist concept that describes the state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control of one's thoughts."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "mind monkey"
        },
        {
          "word": "monkey of the mind"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "Buddhism",
        "lifestyle",
        "religion"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The mind of a monkey."
      ],
      "id": "en-monkey_mind-en-noun-MngaptRC",
      "qualifier": "literal",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literal) The mind of a monkey."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "monkey mind"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals",
    "English terms derived from Chinese",
    "English terms derived from Japanese",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "zh",
        "3": "心猿"
      },
      "expansion": "Chinese 心猿",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "心猿"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese 心猿",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Chinese 心猿 (xīnyuán) or Japanese 心猿 (shin'en) which both literally mean \"heart-mind monkey\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "monkey mind",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Buddhism"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A Buddhist concept that describes the state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control of one's thoughts."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Buddhism",
          "Buddhism"
        ],
        [
          "concept",
          "concept"
        ],
        [
          "restlessness",
          "restlessness"
        ],
        [
          "capriciousness",
          "capriciousness"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Buddhism) A Buddhist concept that describes the state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control of one's thoughts."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "mind monkey"
        },
        {
          "word": "monkey of the mind"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "Buddhism",
        "lifestyle",
        "religion"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The mind of a monkey."
      ],
      "qualifier": "literal",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literal) The mind of a monkey."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "monkey mind"
}

Download raw JSONL data for monkey mind meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.