字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

bomb, burst open, pop, split

On’yomi バク
Kun’yomi は.ぜる

Origin

The left side of this character, the fire radical, classifies it as something involving heat or flames. The right component is a sound hint that tells you this character is pronounced roughly like "baku." Together, the fire plus the sound component create a character meaning explosion or bursting open — the image of something suddenly rupturing with intense heat and force, like a bomb going off.

爆 19 strokes

Components

  • 火 radical left
  • 暴 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 起爆 きばく ignition; detonation
  • 原爆 げんばく atomic bomb; A-bomb
  • 爆撃 ばくげき bombing (raid)
  • 爆笑 ばくしょう roar of laughter (from multiple people); burst of laughter
  • 爆弾 ばくだん bomb
  • 爆竹 ばくちく firecracker
  • 爆破 ばくは destructive blast; blowing up
  • 爆発 ばくはつ explosion; detonation

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
19
Kangxi radical
86
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#735 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07206