How to say "karma" in Japanese

• 天命てんめいCommon
  nounThis covers fate as decreed by heaven — God's will or the mandate of Heaven. It is seldom the word for karma's Buddhist cause-and-effect sense; think of a destiny handed down by a higher power.
  人事じんじを尽つくして天命てんめいを待まつ。↗

  Man proposes, God disposes.
• 因果いんがCommon
  nounThe Buddhist term for karma: the link between deeds and their later consequences, good or bad. Use it when karma is meant as a law of cause and effect shaping one's fate.
  親おやの因果いんがが子こに報むくいる。↗

  The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children.
• 定めさだめCommon
  nounDestiny or fate as something fixed and inescapable, often with a note of resignation; it suits karma in the loose sense of one's allotted lot, not the Buddhist mechanics of cause and effect.

Choose 因果 for karma as the Buddhist law of cause and effect, 「定め」 for karma as a fixed, inescapable lot, and 天命 only for fate as heaven's decree or God's will rather than karma proper.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

• 天命てんめいGod's will
• カルマkarma
• 宿業しゅくごうkarma (from one's previous life)
• 業ごうkarma
• 業因ごういんkarma
• 羯磨かつまkarma
• 宿縁しゅくえんdestiny
• 因果応報いんがおうほうretribution
• 因果因縁いんがいんねんcause and effect
• 因果いんがkarma
• 定めさだめdestiny
• 契りちぎりdestiny