sutra
noun
su·tra ˈsü-trə 
1
: a precept summarizing Vedic teaching
also : a collection of these precepts
2
: one of the discourses of the Buddha that constitute the basic text of Buddhist scripture
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web What the publisher could not have imagined was the license LuYang would take with the sutra 1151 years later, reconstituting it as a video game titled The Great Adventure of Material World. 
Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 8 June 2022 In the end, this ragtag band finally acquires the sutra scrolls from a surprisingly worldly-wise Buddha and achieves a kind of sainthood for themselves. Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2021 The Daizo sutra is a compilation of Buddhist writings consisting of 5,048 scrolls. Ryozui Ryosen, Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021 These ties of the five thousand scrolls will unravel in my empty belly; out the Daizo sutra’s words will flow, and settle there inside me. Ryozui Ryosen, Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021 In Asia, Buddhist monks have been chanting sutras to provide spiritual relief. Brooke Schedneck, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2020 Then there was Mencius, Mahavira, Laozi and the Buddha — as he is portrayed in both the Pali Canon and the innovative Mahayana sutras, which may be the world’s first fan fiction. Randy Rosenthal, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2019 Yoon’s work unfolds as a brilliant embodiment of the sutra’s meditation on emptiness. Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 29 June 2019 The temple generated headlines in recent years for allowing monks to study sutras on iPads and building a robot in the shape of a pint-sized monk able to answer questions about Buddhism. Fox News, 3 Aug. 2018 See More
Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 8 June 2022 In the end, this ragtag band finally acquires the sutra scrolls from a surprisingly worldly-wise Buddha and achieves a kind of sainthood for themselves. Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2021 The Daizo sutra is a compilation of Buddhist writings consisting of 5,048 scrolls. Ryozui Ryosen, Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021 These ties of the five thousand scrolls will unravel in my empty belly; out the Daizo sutra’s words will flow, and settle there inside me. Ryozui Ryosen, Harpers Magazine, 5 Jan. 2021 In Asia, Buddhist monks have been chanting sutras to provide spiritual relief. Brooke Schedneck, The Conversation, 1 Apr. 2020 Then there was Mencius, Mahavira, Laozi and the Buddha — as he is portrayed in both the Pali Canon and the innovative Mahayana sutras, which may be the world’s first fan fiction. Randy Rosenthal, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2019 Yoon’s work unfolds as a brilliant embodiment of the sutra’s meditation on emptiness. Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 29 June 2019 The temple generated headlines in recent years for allowing monks to study sutras on iPads and building a robot in the shape of a pint-sized monk able to answer questions about Buddhism. Fox News, 3 Aug. 2018 See More Word History
Etymology
Sanskrit sūtra precept, literally, thread; akin to Latin suere to sew — more at sew
First Known Use
1801, in the meaning defined at sense 1