雷 means “thunder”

かみなり · kaminari

Also: lightning bolt

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

かみなり, いかずち, いかづち

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ライ

Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

Thunder shakes the sky. Raijin, the god of storms, beats his drums across the heavens.

The rain radical plus the field radical: rain striking the earth

Its parts

• 雨 Rain · Top
• 田 Rice field · Bottom

Rain (雨) over the fields (田): thunder and lightning

Kanji that look like 雷

• 雨 (rain): 雨 is just the top radical; 雷 adds 田 (field) below for thunder
• 電 (electricity): 電 extends 雷 with a hook at the bottom: lightning becomes electricity

More from Nature's Poetry

• 海 sea
• 雲 cloud
• 野 field
• 光 light
• 谷 valley
• 竹 bamboo
• 草 grass
• 池 pond
• 砂 sand
• 滴 raindrop
• 霜 frost
• 露 dew

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

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