also: けいてん · きょうでん
sacred books; sutras; scriptures
Refers broadly to religious scriptures, including Buddhist sutras, the Bible, the Koran, and other canonical texts.
He reads Buddhist sutras every morning.
This scripture is part of the Christian Bible.
経典 is a broader, more formal term for sacred scripture (used across religions), while 経 specifically denotes a Buddhist sutra.
経典 is a general term for a religion's sacred scripture, whereas コーラン specifically names the Islamic holy book.
Standard kanji spelling; the most common reading is きょうてん.
Alternate reading; less common than きょうてん.
Obsolete kana usage; not used in modern Japanese.
From Chinese 經典 (jīngdiǎn), meaning 'classic texts' or 'scriptures'. The kanji 経 means 'sutra' or 'classic', and 典 means 'code' or 'canon'.