The kanji character 雷 means "thunder" or "lightning." It represents the powerful natural phenomenon of a thunderclap and the associated flash of light. It can also figuratively refer to something that is sudden, striking, or forceful.

・On-yomi (音読み): ライ (rai) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): かみなり (kaminari)

⚫︎ 雷雨 Translation: Thunderstorm ⚫︎ 雷鳴 Translation: Thunder; clap of thunder ⚫︎ 地雷 Translation: Landmine (literally "ground thunder")

The kanji 雷 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). It is composed of two parts: the "rain" radical (雨, ame) on the top and the character 田 (ta, field) and the character 申 (mou, to say, to explain) at the bottom. The "rain" radical (雨, ame) signifies the element of "rain," while the other parts (田, 申) together provide the phonetic component. The combination suggests a phenomenon related to the rain, which is the sound of thunder in the sky. It represents the sound of thunder echoing through the fields.