電

See also: 电

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 雨 (“rain”) + phonetic 电

The 电 in this character is a variant/corruption of 申, used phonetically. Compare the Old Chinese pronunciations: 申 *l̥in, 電 *lˤin-s.

Han character

電 (radical 173 雨+5, 13 strokes, cangjie input 一月田山 (MBWU), four-corner 1071₆, composition ⿱雨电)

1. electricity, electric, electro-
2. lightning

References

• KangXi: page 1373, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42253
• Dae Jaweon: page 1882, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 6, page 4060, character 1
• Unihan data for U+96FB

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Chinese

		-
trad.		電
simp.		电

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): diàn (dian⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄉㄧㄢˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): din⁶

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: diàn
    • Zhuyin: ㄉㄧㄢˋ
    • Wade-Giles: tien⁴
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: diann
    • IPA ^(key): /ti̯ɛn⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: din⁶
    • Yale: dihn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: din⁶
    • IPA ^(key): /tiːn²²/

Middle Chinese pronunciation (電, reconstructed)
Character (電), Pronunciation 1/1
Initial: 定 (7) Final: 先 Division: IV			Openness: Open Tone: Departing (H)			Fanqie: 堂練切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/denH/	/dʱienH/	/denH/	/denH/	/dɛnH/	/dienH/	/dɛnH/

Old Chinese pronunciation (電, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character								Modern Beijing (Pinyin)								Middle Chinese								Old Chinese								English
電								diàn								‹ denH ›								/*lˤi[n]-s/								lightning
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character					No.					Phonetic component					Rime group					Rime subdivision					Corresponding MC rime					Old Chinese					Notes
電					11233					申					眞					1					電					/*l'iːns/

Compounds

• 電梯
• 電話
• 電腦

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Japanese

Kanji

電

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. lightning
2. electricity

Readings

• Goon: でん (den)
• Kan’on: てん (ten)
• Kun: いなずま (inazuma)

Compounds

Compounds

雷電 (らいでん, raiden): thunder and lightning 電話 (でんわ, denwa): a telephone 電気 (でんき, denki): electricity 電流 (でんりゅう, denryū): electric current 電圧 (でんあつ, den'atsu): voltage

電力 (でんりょく, denryoku): electric power 電卓 (でんたく, dentaku): electric calculator 電車 (でんしゃ, densha): electric train 電灯 (でんとう, dentō): light, lamp 電燈 (でんとう, dentō): light, lamp

電球 (でんきゅう, denkyū): light bulb 発電 (はつでん, hatsuden): electric power generation 電子 (でんし, denshi): electron 電子計算機 (でんしけいさんき, denshi keisanki): computer 電磁界 (でんじかい, denjikai): electromagnetic field

Etymology

Compound of いな (ina, “rice plant”) +‎ つま (tsuma, “spouse”). From an old folk belief that lightning joined with the rice plant to bring it to seed. The tsuma becomes zuma in this compound due to rendaku (連濁).

Noun

電 (hiragana いなずま, romaji inazuma)

1. lightning

Synonyms

• 落雷
• 稲妻
• 稲光

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Korean

Hanja

電 (jeon) (hangeul 전, revised jeon, McCune-Reischauer chŏn, Yale cen)

1. This entry needs a definition. Please add one, then remove {{defn}}.

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Vietnamese

Han character

電 (điện)

1. This entry needs a definition. Please add one, then remove {{defn}}.