灰 means “ash”

はい · hai

Also: ashes, puckery juice, cremate

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

はい

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

カイ

JLPT N2 · Taught in grade 6 · 6 strokes

The story

A hand (ナ, a squashed 又) over fire (火): fire cool enough to touch, which is ash. 灰色 is gray, and in Kagoshima, where the Sakurajima volcano rains ash on the city, households get special bags to sweep it into.

Used in 灰 (hai, ash), 灰皿 (haizara, ashtray), and 灰色 (haiiro, gray)

More from Quake & Fire

• 極 extreme
• 混 mix
• 震 quake
• 傾 lean
• 燃 burn
• 跡 trace

Learn 灰 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.