Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

雷: thunder, lightning bolt

JLPT N113 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

雨 carries the meaning · 田 gives the sound

13 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

ライrai · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 地雷じらいland mine
  • 機雷きらい(sea) mine
  • 雷雨らいう
  • 落雷らくらいlightning strike; lightning bolt
  • 魚雷ぎょらいtorpedo

かみなりkaminari · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 雷かみなりlightning; thunder; thunderbolt

Also read いかずち, いかづち, with no example words in our sources. Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)雨 rain (meaning) + 畾 (sound)

Ancient simplification of 靁, which was a phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 雨 (“rain”) + phonetic 畾.

Source: Wiktionary, 雷 (rev. 94487880), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Rain radical + field (田) = the power of the storm that rumbles over the farmers' fields.”
From the 雨 rain story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
雨

Also built on rain (雨)

All 13
田

Also built on rice paddy (田)

All 24

Also read ライ

6 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
雷 thunder · 田
vs電 electricity · 申
雷 has 田 where 電 has 申.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · léi

Same form: 雷 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
雷 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
雷 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin léi most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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