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暴

bào
adjective #4,767

Meanings

  1. 1 sudden
  2. 2 violent
  3. 3 cruel
  4. 4 to expose

Examples

暴力是不能解决问题的。
Bàolì shì bùnéng jiějué wèntí de.
Violence cannot solve problems.
昨晚下了一场暴风雨。
Zuówǎn xià le yī chǎng bàofēngyǔ.
There was a rainstorm last night.
他的秘密被暴露了。
Tā de mìmì bèi bàolù le.
His secret was exposed.

Tips

usage
暴力 (violence), 暴风雨 (storm), 暴露 (to expose), 暴富 (sudden wealth), 风暴 (windstorm). The character carries a sense of suddenness, force, or harshness.

Components

radical
日 rì
sun; day
Top sun radical — anchors the original picture: something laid out under the harsh midday sun. 日 is the indexing radical, putting 暴 in the same family as 时, 早, 晴, 暖. The sun-exposure idea also explains the modern reading 暴露 'to expose / lay bare'.
semantic
共 gòng
together; joined hands
Middle 共 — historically a pair of hands lifting an object up to the sun. Here those raised hands forcibly display whatever is below to the sky's heat. From that violent showing comes the 'sudden, fierce' edge in 暴力 violence and 暴雨 cloudburst.
semantic
氺 shuǐ
water (vertical variant)
Bottom 氺 — the vertical form of water 水, here drawn as scattered drops or grains. Originally 暴 showed wet rice spread out to dry under fierce sun; the four bottom strokes are that drying scatter. The whole compound is sun + lifting hands + scattered drops = forceful exposure to the elements.

Stroke Order

暴 bào