Anicca is the Pali term for impermanence, one of Buddhism’s Three Marks of Existence.
The teaching of anicca states that conditioned phenomena arise, change, and pass away. This includes physical objects, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Because these things are unstable, Buddhism teaches that treating them as permanent can lead to dissatisfaction.
The other two traditional marks are dukkha, often translated as suffering or unsatisfactoriness, and anatta, commonly translated as not-self. Together, the three marks describe important characteristics of ordinary conditioned experience.
Anicca does not simply mean that everything changes in a casual or temporary sense. In Buddhist analysis, recognizing change is part of developing insight and weakening attachment. The term appears throughout Buddhist scriptures and remains central in Theravada meditation traditions.