曝 (bào) · to expose (photography or scandal)

Meanings

1 to expose (photography or scandal)
2 to reveal; to leak (news or secrets)

Characters

曝

bào / pù

to expose to light; to reveal; to air out in the sun

Examples

HSK 5

这张照片曝光过度，看不清楚。

Zhè zhāng zhàopiàn bàoguāng guòdù, kàn bù qīngchu.

This photo is overexposed and hard to see clearly.

HSK 7-9

他的丑闻被媒体曝光了。

Tā de chǒuwén bèi méitǐ bàoguāng le.

His scandal was exposed by the media.

Tips

usage

曝 (bào) is primarily used in the compound 曝光 (bàoguāng), meaning 'to expose' (photographically or figuratively, as in exposing a scandal). It also has a reading of pù meaning 'to sun/air out,' as in 曝晒 (to expose to strong sunlight).

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Sun radical on the left, the indexing radical. It puts 曝 firmly in the 'exposing-to-sunlight' family. The traditional sense was hanging clothes out to dry. Modern 曝光 'exposure' (photo/scandal) keeps the same image of light being let onto something hidden.

phonetic

暴 bào

violent; expose

Right side 暴 supplies both the bào sound and a strong semantic echo. 暴 itself already means 'to expose to the sun' (its bottom 氺 plus rice-graph pictured grain spread to dry). 曝 added an extra 日 to make the sun-drying sense unambiguous when 暴 drifted toward 'violent'.