Hīnayāna (हीनयान) is a Sanskrit and Pāli term literally meaning: the "Inferior Vehicle", "Deficient Vehicle", the "Abandoned Vehicle", or the "Defective Vehicle". The term appeared around the 1st or 2nd century.

Hīnayāna is contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "Great Vehicle." There are a variety of interpretations as to who or what the term "Hīnayāna" refers to. The Chinese monk Yijing who visited India in the 7th century, distinguishes Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:

The word Hīnayāna is formed of hīna (हीन): "poor", "inferior","abandoned", "deficient", "defective;" and yāna (यान): "vehicle", where "vehicle" means "a way of going to enlightenment". The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary (1921–25) defines hīna in even stronger terms, with a semantic field that includes "poor, miserable; vile, base, abject, contemptible," and "despicable."

In the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese languages, the term was translated by Kumārajīva and others as "small vehicle" (小 meaning "small", 乘 meaning "vehicle"), although earlier and more accurate translations of the term also exist. In Mongolian (Baga Holgon) term for Hinayana also means "small" or "lesser" vehicle, while in Tibetan there are at least two words to designate the term, theg chung (Tibetan: ཐེག་ཆུང་) meaning "small vehicle", and theg dman (Tibetan: ཐེག་དམན་) meaning "inferior vehicle" or "inferior spiritual approach".