洪 means “flood, vast”

こう · kou

Also: deluge

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

コウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 9 strokes

The story

Water (氵) with everything together (共): every stream joining into one great flood. 洪 lives in 洪水, a flood, and since Japan's short, steep rivers rise fast, towns publish 洪水ハザードマップ showing how deep the water could reach.

Used in 洪水 (kouzui, flood) and 洪水警報 (kouzui keihou, flood warning)

More from Fire & Flood

• 薪 firewood
• 氾 overflow
• 濫 overflow
• 災 disaster
• 炎 flame
• 噴 erupt
• 炉 hearth
• 惨 miserable
• 墜 crash
• 遭 meet with (trouble)

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

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