灾 · zāi
calamity, disaster, catastrophe
Meanings & readings
Meaning & readings
calamity, disaster, catastrophe
- Mandarin
- zāi
- Cantonese
- zoi1
Unihan definitions and selected character readings. Read the word to establish its pronunciation in context.
Readings in Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese
Readings recorded for 灾 in other language traditions. These are character-level records, not word translations or interchangeable pronunciations.
Japanese 日本語
Grouped by the source’s kana notation; no frequency ranking is implied.
On’yomi · katakana
Kun’yomi · hiragana
Katakana generally indicates on’yomi; hiragana generally indicates kun’yomi. The source does not identify everyday, rare, historical or name use per reading. Kana strings are preserved, including any written endings; consult a Japanese word entry for actual use.
Go deeperJisho ↗Wiktionary ↗
Korean 한국어
Hanja readings · Hangul
Source codes are separated below. They are neither sounds nor tones; a character reading alone does not specify a whole word’s pronunciation.
Go deeperNaver Hanja ↗Wiktionary ↗
Reading sources explained
- 재
- KS X 1002 (1) · Personal-name Hanja (N)
Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
Character readings · Quốc ngữ
Vietnamese readings associated with this Han character. This field alone does not establish word meanings, current usage, or a complete account of Hán-Nôm reading traditions.
Go deeperHán Việt (Thi Viện) ↗Wiktionary ↗
Form & structure
Writing & identity
- Unicode
- U+707E
- Radical
- 火 · 86
- Strokes
- 7 · Unihan
- Residual
- 3
Source record · Unihan 17.0. Individual senses and historical claims have not yet been reviewed by zimai.
Stroke order
7 strokesModern stroke order; regional conventions can differ. Stroke medians: Make Me a Hanzi via HanziLookupJS, drawn as an even pen line.
Graphical structure
How to read these symbols
⿰ left–right · ⿱ above–below · ⿻ overlap. Dotted boxes indicate positions, not missing characters. Each symbol describes the components that follow it; nested symbols describe a component in more detail. Source codes identify alternative analyses, not a writing sequence or an etymology.
BabelStone IDS · 2025-06-27. Region tags are preserved; 〾 marks approximation and {n} identifies an unencoded source component. These describe graphical structure, not historical derivation.
Words & connections
Words using 灾
Character connections
No reverse component match in this collection.
History & distinctions
Related forms
災
Unihan traditional/simplified variant properties. Conversion may depend on context.
Historical readings
- Middle Chinese
- tsoj · 祖才 反切 · #390
Guangyun-based transcriptions · PHONO-ML · CC BY 4.0. These describe historical reading categories, not modern word pronunciation.
Source row & reading categories
CSV line 3400 · tsoj = 蟹開一平咍精
Automatically generated in the source dataset; the authors checked a subset and acknowledge possible errors. All source readings are retained separately. Notation & method ↗
Sources & reference
Evidence & next depth
Retained Unihan properties
- kMandarin
- zāi
- kCantonese
- zoi1
- kDefinition
- calamity, disaster, catastrophe
- kTotalStrokes
- 7
- kRSUnicode
- 86.3
- kTraditionalVariant
- U+707D U+707E
- kSimplifiedVariant
- U+707E
- kTGH
- 2013:883
Readings across dictionaries
- Xiandai Hanyu · 1983
- zāi 1436.020
- Tongyong Guifan · 2013
- zāi 456.090
- Reading counts · XDHYPLCD
- zāi(110)