Note: the Hindi and Sanskrit paths disagree here — the Sanskrit dictionary reading is negative (“death”) while the Hindi reading is not. Both are shown below; read them together before choosing.
As a Hindi name
Note: the Hindi and Sanskrit paths disagree here — the Sanskrit dictionary reading is negative (“death”) while the Hindi reading is not. Both are shown below; read them together before choosing.
अभाव · noun · masculine
असत्ता । अनस्तित्व । नेस्ती । अविद्य- मानत । न होना · आधुनिक नैयायिकों के मत के अनुसार वैशेषिक शास्त्र में सातवाँ पदार्थ · त्रुटि । टोटा । कमी । घाट । जैसे, राजा के घर में द्रव्य का कौन अभाव है — Śabdasāgara
अभाव · adj
भावरहित । स्नेरहित । लोप । अंतरिक्ष । अंतर्धान (को॰) — Śabdasāgara
अभाव · abhāʼo · s.m.
Non-existence; absence; extinction, annihilation; poverty, want, destitution — Platts (1884), digital edition courtesy DSAL, University of Chicago, p. 5
अभाव · masculine
non-existence; lack, deficiency
Cited formation "अभाव" is अभ + -आव: अभ means "आम्र", and the suffix -आव forms abstract nouns (masc.). CHD Basic Grammar App. I §8(8) — cited from the extracted rule table — base gloss: Śabdasāgara
Cited formation "अभाव" is अ- + भाव: भाव means "rate, price", and the prefix अ- forms negation, lack. CHD Basic Grammar App. I §3(1) — cited from the extracted rule table
a Hindi word, a tatsama: the Sanskrit word borrowed unchanged into Hindi अभाव — per Wiktionary’s etymology record
“Borrowed from Sanskrit अभाव (abhāva).” — per Wiktionary’s etymology record
a-bhāva m. nonexistence, nullity, absence
non-entity, negation (the seventh category in Kaṇāda's system)
As a Sanskrit word
Meaning
non-entity, negation (the seventh category in Kaṇāda's system)
Verified derivationMultiple readings (4)Why this matches what you typed
The spelling you confirmed, अभाव, is itself a dictionary headword — no grammatical transformation stands between what you typed and the meaning above.
Dictionary citations
a-bhāva m. nonexistence, nullity, absence
non-entity, negation (the seventh category in Kaṇāda's system)
proof from nonexistence (one of the six pramāṇas in Vedānta phil. [‘since there are no mice, therefore there must be cats here’] See pramāṇa)
annihilation, death.
abhāva a. [na. ba.] 1 Without love or affection. 2 Non-existent. — vaḥ 1 Not being or existing, non-existence; gato bhavo'bhāvaṃ Mk. 1 has disappeared. 2 Absence, want, failure; sarveṣāmapyabhāve tu brāhmaṇā rikthabhāginaḥ Ms. 9. 188; mostly in comp.; sarvābhāve harennṛpaḥ 189 in the absence of all, failing all; toya˚, anna˚, āhāra˚ &c. 3 Annihilation, death, destruction, non-entity; nābhāva upalabdheḥ Ś. B.; Śi. 20. 64; Ki. 18. 10. 4 (In phil.) Privation, non-existence, nullity or negation, supposed to be the seventh category or padārtha in the system of Kaṇāda. Strictly speaking abhāva is not a separate predicament, like dravya, guṇa, but is only a negative arrangement of those predicaments; all nameable things being divided into positive (bhāva) and negative (abhāva), the first division including dravya, guṇa, karma, sāmānya, viśeṣa and samavāya and the second only one abhāva; cf. atra saptamasthābhāvakathanādeva ṣaṇṇāṃ bhāvatvaṃ prāptaṃ (pb) tena bhāvatvena pṛthagupanyāso na kṛtaḥ Muktā. abhāva is defined as bhāvabhinno'bhāvaḥ ( pratiyogijñānādhīnaviṣayatvaṃ) that whose knowledge is dependent on the knowledge of its pratiyogī. It is of two principal kinds saṃsargābhāva and anyonyābhāva; the first comprising three varieties prāgabhāva, pradhvaṃsābhāva, and atyaṃtābhāva. Comp. — saṃpattiḥ f. false attribution (= adhyāsa q. v.)
Alternative readings
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Caveats
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