Chinese Character Wiki
雷

léi

thunder

Depicts rain (雨) and lightning (申) together.

Components
雨 iconic component

雨  Iconic component

yǔ, yù

  

rain

申 iconic component

申  Iconic component

shēn

  

to extend

Depicts a lightning bolt. Modern form looks like unrelated 田.

Evolution

雷 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
雷 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
雷 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
雷 Clerical script Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Clerical script

Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)
雷 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

雷  

léi

thunder; mine (weapon); (Internet slang) terrifying; terrific

雷  

Léi

surname Lei

Most common words with 雷
Freq.
Word
Meaning

雷

thunder

雷达

radar (loanword)

雷锋

Lei Feng (1940-1962), made into a model of altruism and dedication to the Party by propaganda from 1963 onwards

地雷

landmine

雷诺

Reynolds (name)

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

檑

Sound component in 4 characters (0 verified)

蕾 擂 镭 檑

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C.rˤuj

lwoj

léi

thunder


Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 26.4777% of movies

648th most common character in movies

686th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

13

Unicode

U+96F7

Shuowen

“靁，陰陽薄動，靁雨生物者也，从雨，畾象回轉形。，古文靁。，古文靁。，籀文，靁間有回，回，靁聲也。”


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