暴 means “violent, rampage”

ぼう · bou

Also: outburst, rave, fret, force

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

あばく, あばれる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ボウ, バク

JLPT N2 · Taught in grade 5 · 15 strokes

The story

Under a blazing sun (日), everything spread out and laid bare: 暴 first meant to expose, as 暴く, to expose a secret, still does. Now it is mostly force out of control: 暴れる is to run wild and 暴力 is violence.

Used in 暴力 (bouryoku, violence), 暴れる (abareru, to run wild), and 乱暴 (ranbou, rough/violent)

More from Warriors & Rivals

• 圧 pressure
• 爆 explode
• 乱 disorder
• 刺 stab
• 勇 courage
• 隻 counter for ships
• 防 prevent
• 武 martial
• 被 suffer
• 兵 soldier
• 競 compete
• 将 commander

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

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