Sangha (Pali: सन्घ saṅgha; Sanskrit: संघ saṃgha; Wylie: 'dus sde) is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose. Sangha is the third of the Three Jewels in Buddhism.

The term is commonly used in several senses to refer to Buddhist or Jain groups.

Traditionally, in Buddhism Sangha almost always has one of two meanings: most commonly, Sangha means the monastic Sangha of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns. In a stricter sense, Sangha can mean the assembly of all beings possessing some high degree of realization, referred to as the arya-sangha or "noble Sangha". This article deals primarily with the subject of the monastic Sangha. Buddhists traditionally consider monastic life to provide the environment most conducive to advancing toward enlightenment, and the Sangha is responsible for maintaining, translating, advancing, and spreading the teachings of the Buddha.

“Sangha. Community. This word has two levels of meaning: (1) on the ideal (arya) level, it denotes all of the Buddha’s followers, lay or ordained, who have at least attained the level of srotapanna; (2) on the conventional (samvtri) level, it denotes the orders of the Bhiksus and Bhiksunis”

“Sangha is used in the West as a collective term for all Buddhists, but the Pali Canon uses the word parisa (Sanskrit, parisad) for the larger Buddhist community-the monks, nuns, lay men, and lay women who have taken the Three Refuges-reserving ‘Sangha’ for a more restricted use.”