膨 means “swell, expand”

ふくらむ · fukuramu

Also: get fat, thick

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ふくらむ, ふくれる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ボウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 16 strokes

The story

Flesh (月) beside a drum (壴) with three strokes (彡) of sound rolling off it: a belly swollen tight as a drum. 膨らむ is to swell, like bread rising or a balloon, 膨大 is enormous, and 膨張 is expansion.

Used in 膨らむ (fukuramu, to swell), 膨大 (boudai, enormous), and 膨張 (bouchou, expansion)

More from Grow & Wane

• 殖 multiply
• 騰 soar
• 衰 decline
• 累 accumulate
• 堆 pile
• 旺 flourishing
• 耗 wear down
• 勃 sudden rise
• 展 unfold
• 張 stretch
• 拡 expand
• 盛 heap up

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

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