The Buddhist notion that there is no eternal soul, unlike in Hinduism. Instead, each living person is an association of five skandas, which fly apart at death. Linguistically, "atta" is Pali for "atman" while "an" is the negative. The term literally means "no soul."

Sanskrit for "no self." For Pali Buddhists this meant a rejection of any soul substance (~ tman) but not the self (§ va) that comes about because of the functions of the five skandhas (see below).

No-self, or non-self. All condtioned things are devoid of a permanent unchanging selfhood.