瀑 (pù): waterfall (bound form, usually…

Meanings

1 waterfall (bound form, usually in 瀑布)
2 (literary) cataract

Characters

瀑

pù

waterfall (氵 water + 暴 sudden)

Examples

山间飞瀑直泻而下。

Shānjiān fēi pù zhí xiè ér xià.

A flying waterfall plunges straight down between the mountains.

这条河的尽头是一道高瀑。

Zhè tiáo hé de jìntóu shì yīdào gāo pù.

At the end of this river is a tall waterfall.

Tips

usage

瀑 is almost always read pù and used as a bound form — the everyday word is 瀑布 (pùbù, waterfall). It also has a rare reading bào meaning 'sudden rainstorm' (《说文》: 瀑，疾雨也) but you'll only see that in classical texts. Note the 氵 (water) radical paired with 暴 (violent/sudden) — water that crashes down.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form of 水)

Three-drops water radical on the left — the side-form of 水. Indexes 瀑 in the water family with 河, 海, 流. Marks the character as a kind of water; combined with the violent right-hand 暴, the meaning narrows to water falling with explosive force — a cataract or waterfall.

phonetic

暴 bào

violent; sudden

Right side 暴 supplies the sound, drifting from bào to pù with both tone and consonant shift. 暴 alone means "violent, sudden, explosive" — a strong semantic flavour kept here: a 瀑布 waterfall is water in its most violent form. Same phonetic also reads pù in 曝 (sunbathe).