Meaning & readings
outburst, rave, fret, force, violence, cruelty, outrage
On’yomi ボウ、バク
Kun’yomi あば.く、あば.れる
Origin
The character 暴 combines "sun" (日) above with a component meaning "water" or "waves" below. The image suggests something violent and uncontrolled: when the sun beats down intensely on water, it creates turbulent, chaotic movement. This visual of overwhelming natural force became the character's meaning of violence, outburst, and uncontrolled behavior. The combination of two powerful elements in conflict captures the sense of something sudden and forceful breaking out.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 日
- 㳟
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 72
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #692 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+066B4