氾 means “overflow, spread”

はん · han

Also: spread out, wide

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ひろがる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ハン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 5 strokes

The story

Water (氵) beside a kneeling figure, a curled form of 卩: picture a river slumping over its banks. 氾 lives only in 氾濫, a river bursting its banks, and the word spreads to anything overflowing, like 情報の氾濫, a flood of information.

Used in 氾濫 (hanran, flooding/overflow)

More from Fire & Flood

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

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

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