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kammāni

kamma

nt nom pl of kamma (noun); nt acc pl of kamma (noun); nt voc pl of kamma (noun)

1. action; deed; doing
2. work; job; occupation
3. (vinaya) legal act; legal procedure; formal action
4. (gram) object of the verb
5. (gram) passive voice; lit. action
6. volitional action

Built from

• ka(r) — root · make, do
  Proto-Indo-European √*kwer- 'to make, do'; cognate with English work, German wirken, Greek ergon. The sense of making or doing underlies all action.
• m(a) — ending · action noun
  Sanskrit -man, Pali -ma suffix forms action nouns from verb roots; turns the action into a countable noun. Here with nominative plural -āni ending.

Etymology. From Sanskrit karman, cognate with English work (via Germanic *werkan) and Greek ergon (whence energy). The root √kar- means 'make, do'; the -man suffix (Pali -ma) forms action nouns. In Buddhist doctrine, kamma denotes intentional action and its moral efficacy, the doer's volition (cetanā) shaping future experience.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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