佛

Suggested translation: "Buddha"

Mandarin: fó

Middle Chinese: bɪuət

Originally, this was a transliteration of Skt. buddha, though the modern Mandarin pronunciation has changed since this equivalence was first coined. Since the Han dynasty, 佛 has meant "buddha" almost exclusively, though it seems to have originally meant something like "image." A classical expression that preserves this meaning is 仿佛, meaning "blurry," "unclear," or "closely resembling."

Note that this term can mean the Buddha (Gautama) or any buddha(s) in particular according to context.