I think I know some of these, but the rest are a translation muddle. The west seems to not attempt to translate nirvana, sangha, dharma, mantra, mudra, buddha, bodhisattva (and probably a few more) and that for me is actually helpful. I expect that some of these correspond to multiple Pali/Sanskrit words.
Enlightenment. In English, it is an anachronistic reference to the European age of Enlightenment.
Meditation. This word predates the west's contact with Buddhism. I have no idea what non-Buddhist baggage it brings along.
Loving-kindness. This sounds like Christianity projected on Buddhism.
Soul. Seems like this is atman, but everyone seems determined to call it something like "self," which is for a man-in-the-street just a reflexive pronoun. (Does the self exist? Well, as much as any other pronoun, like "he" or "they")
Reincarnation/rebirth. Synonyms in man-in-the-street's English, but I've seen people argue passionately how Buddhism believes one but not the other, sort of like believing in leasing but not renting (which are synonyms).
Repentance. I know for sure this is a big deal in Chinese Buddhism.
Pure/Purity. Means scrubbed clean of earthly dirt. I know this is a metaphor, but somehow, after 2000 years it falls as flat as if I tried to use a computer metaphor to explain to a 500BC farmer how the brain and cellular DNA works.
Heaven/Pure Land. Sukhāvatī comes to mind, but I'm not sure if this is a specific pure land, or the jargon for pure lands in general. Again, 'pure' makes it sound either homogenous or really well scrubbed, like a hospital. I'd rather just use whatever jargon word the originators used.
Deity. This in man-in-the-street English mean a god, or God, just like the one's the Christian's pray to. In Vajrayana, people seem to argue that yidams are something else.
But the word 'enlightenment' is commonly used to refer to Nibbana.
– Sankha Kulathantille Aug 31 '14 at 07:47