浪 means “waves, wandering”

ろう · rou

Also: billows, reckless

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ロウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 10 strokes

The story

Water (氵) beside good (良): picture fine rolling waves. 浪 is waves and drifting with them: a 浪人 was a masterless samurai, and today it is a student spending a year to retake university exams; 浪費 is money washed away.

Used in 浪人 (rounin, masterless samurai; student retaking exams), 浪費 (rouhi, waste), and 波浪警報 (harou keihou, high-wave warning)

More from Ships & Shores

• 涯 limit
• 舶 ship
• 沙 sand
• 帆 sail
• 岬 cape
• 礁 reef
• 汽 steam
• 藻 seaweed
• 舷 ship's side
• 浜 beach
• 江 inlet
• 浦 inlet

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

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