雷

Translingual

Han character

雷 (Kangxi radical 173, 雨+5, 13 strokes, cangjie input 一月田 (MBW), four-corner 1060₃, composition ⿱⻗田)

Derived characters

• 擂, 檑, 鐳 (镭), 礌, 鱩, 蕾, 靐, 癗

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1372, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42245
• Dae Jaweon: page 1881, character 3
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4060, character 2
• Unihan data for U+96F7

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Chinese

trad.		雷
simp. #		雷
alternative forms		𩇓 𤴐 𩂩 𤳳 䨓 𩇓 𤴐 𩂩 𤳳 䨓 𩄣 靁 㗊 𤴑

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (畾) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
摞	*roːl, *roːls
騾	*roːl
螺	*roːl
蔂	*roːl, *rul
虆	*roːl, *rul
瘰	*roːlʔ
礌	*ruːl, *ruːls
雷	*ruːl
擂	*ruːl, *ruːls
攂	*ruːl, *ruːls
礧	*ruːll, *ruːlʔ, *ruːls
儡	*ruːl, *ruːlʔ, *ruːls
瓃	*ruːl, *rul, *ruls
櫑	*ruːl, *ruːlʔ
鑘	*ruːl, *ruːlʔ
鐳	*ruːl
畾	*ruːl
轠	*ruːl, *rulʔ
罍	*ruːl
蕾	*ruːlʔ
癗	*ruːlʔ
磥	*ruːlʔ
累	*ruːls, *rolʔ, *rols
儽	*ruːls, *rul
樏	*rolʔ, *rul
鸓	*rul, *rulʔ
嫘	*rul
纍	*rul, *ruls
欙	*rul
纝	*rul
壘	*rulʔ
櫐	*rulʔ
蘽	*rulʔ
藟	*rulʔ
讄	*rulʔ

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

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 雷

1. thunder
2. (military) mine

   (slang) 內容有雷／内容有雷  ―  nèiróng yǒu léi  ―  spoilers ahead (lit. 'the content has mines')

3. (colloquial) to astonish; to dumbfound; to amaze
4. a surname

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Japanese

Kanji

雷

(Jōyō kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: らい (rai, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: らい (rai, Jōyō)
• Kun: いかずち (ikazuchi, 雷)^{←いかづち (ikaduti, 雷, historical)}; かみなり (kaminari, 雷, Jōyō); かんなり (kannari, 雷); なるかみ (narukami, 雷)

Compounds

Compounds

• 避雷針(ひらいしん) (hiraishin): lightning rod
• 雷鳥(らいちょう) (raichō): a rock ptarmigan, a snow grouse
• 雷神鳥(らいじんちょう) (raijinchō): a thunderbird
• 雷獣(らいじゅう) (raijū): a thunder beast

Etymology 1

雷 (kaminari, kannari, ikazuchi, narukami, rai): thunder and lightning.

Kanji in this term
雷
かみなり Grade: S
kun'yomi

Compound of .

Noun

雷(かみなり) • (kaminari) 

1. thunder (the sound)
2. lightning, a thunderbolt

Usage notes

This kaminari reading is the most common reading when used as a standalone noun.

Synonyms

• (thunder):: 雷鳴(らいめい) (raimei)
• (lightning):: 電(いなずま) (inazuma), 稲妻(いなずま) (inazuma), 稲光(いなびかり) (inabikari), 落雷(らくらい) (rakurai)
• (both): 雷電(らいでん) (raiden): thunder and lightning

Idioms

• 雷(かみなり)が落(お)ちる (kaminari ga ochiru): “the thunder comes down” → to be scolded severely by a superior, to be ripped a new one

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
雷
かんなり Grade: S
kun'yomi

/kaminari/ → /kannari/

Shift in pronunciation from kaminari above.

Alternative forms

• 雷鳴り, 雷鳴

Noun

雷(かんなり) • (kannari) 

1. (rare, archaic) thunder (the sound)
2. (rare, archaic) lightning, a thunderbolt

Proper noun

雷(かんなり) • (Kannari) 

1. (rare, archaic) short for 雷の壺 (Kaminari no Tsubo, literally “thunder pot”), one of the five buildings in the imperial palace in ancient 平安京 (Heian Kyō, “Heian-kyō”, modern-day Kyōto)

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
雷
いかずち Grade: S
kun'yomi

/ika t͡su t͡ɕi/ → /ikad͡ʑut͡ɕi/ → /ikazut͡ɕi/

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Japanese. Originally a compound of .

Noun

雷(いかずち) • (ikazuchi) ^{←いかづち (ikaduti)?}

1. (rare, archaic) something ferocious and imposing, a demon or devil
2. (rare, archaic) thunder (the sound)
3. (rare, archaic) lightning, a thunderbolt

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
雷
なるかみ Grade: S
kun'yomi

Compound of .

Alternative forms

• 鳴る神, 鳴神

Noun

雷(なるかみ) • (narukami) 

1. (rare) thunder (the sound)
2. (rare) lightning, a thunderbolt

Proper noun

雷(なるかみ) • (Narukami) 

1. one of the eighteen styles of kabuki

   This sense is more commonly spelled as 鳴神.

Etymology 5

Kanji in this term
雷
らい Grade: S
on'yomi

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle Chinese 雷 (luəi, “thunder”). Compare modern (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Mandarin reading léi, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Cantonese leoi⁴.

Noun

雷(らい) • (rai) 

1. (rare) thunder (the sound)
2. (rare) lightning, a thunderbolt

Usage notes

Used more in compounds than on its own. As a standalone noun, the kaminari reading is the most common.

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Korean

Hanja

雷 • (roe>noe) (hangeul 뢰>뇌, revised roe>noe, McCune–Reischauer roe>noe, Yale loy>noy)

1. (deprecated template usage) (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

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Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 雷 (lôi)

1. (deprecated template usage) (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.