电 is the building block for many modern technology words: 电脑 (computer), 电话 (telephone), 电视 (television), 电影 (movie), 电子 (electronic).
Components
pictograph
电diàn
electricity; lightning
Single pictographic unit. Simplified from 電 (rain 雨 over 申 lightning-bolt); the 1956 reform stripped the rain top and kept only the lightning core, depicting a jagged bolt streaking through clouds. Indexed under Kangxi #73 曰 (speak) by tradition via the boxy silhouette; no separable element survives.
Filed under radical 曰 (yuē, #73) by convention. 曰 is not a separate component in 电, so no strokes are highlighted.
