雷 (léi): thunder

雷 (léi) is a Chinese character meaning “thunder.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 雨 (structural) and 田 (structural). It ranks #686 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 雷 a storm 雨 over the fields 田. Its radical form 雨 (rain) appears in many related characters such as 雨 (yǔ, rain), 零 (líng, zero), 雪 (xuě, snow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. thunder

Etymology & Origin

雷

ideographicA storm 雨 over the fields 田

Decomposition: ⿱雨田 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Practice writing 雷 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 雷

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
打雷verbdǎ léito rumble with thunder6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
雷达nounléi dá(loanword) radar
格雷gé léiGrey
地雷noundì léiland mine
雷蒙德léi méng déRaymond (name)
雷鸟nounléi niǎocapercaillie (Lagopus, several species)
雷克斯proper-nounléi kè sīRex (name)
鱼雷nounyú léitorpedo
雷鸣verbléi míngthunder rolls
雷管nounléi guǎndetonator
手雷nounshǒu léigrenade
布雷verbbù léito lay mines
雷电nounléi diànthunder and lightning
大发雷霆dà fā léi tíngto be furious
雷公nounléi gōngLei Gong or Duke of Thunder, the God of Thunder in Chinese mythology
哈姆雷特hā mǔ léi tèHamlet (name)
100
Total compounds
48
As first character
36
As last character
16
As middle character

雷 appears in 100 compound words: 48 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 16 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 雷 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

鱼yú
0.56416,780 co-occurrences
斯sī
0.50290,332 co-occurrences
克kè
0.47755,878 co-occurrences
格gé
0.47443,468 co-occurrences
德dé
0.47254,066 co-occurrences
赫hè
0.45811,098 co-occurrences
布bù
0.44737,142 co-occurrences
姆mǔ
0.44413,584 co-occurrences
特tè
0.44151,206 co-occurrences
佩pèi
0.4367,410 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

阿德雷德ĀdéléidéHSK 6+

Alternative name for 阿德萊德/阿德莱德 (Ādéláidé).: Adelaide (the state capital and largest city in South Australia, Australia)

安克雷奇ĀnkèléiqíHSK 6+

Anchorage (a city in Alaska, United States)

暴跳如雷bàotiào-rúléiHSK 6+

to be infuriated; to be enraged; to be furious; to be hopping mad

phrase
哈雷彗星hā léi huì xīng

Halley's Comet

phrase
哈姆雷特hā mǔ léi tèHSK 7+

Hamlet (name); the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark c. 1601 by William Shakespeare 莎士比亞|莎士比亚

phrase
雷厉风行léilìfēngxíngHSK 6+

vigorously and speedily; vigorously and resolutely; swift and decisive

phrase
如雷贯耳rúléiguàn'ěrHSK 6+

to reverberate like thunder; to be very famous

phrase
如雷灌耳rú léi guàn ěrHSK 7+

variant of 如雷貫耳|如雷贯耳

phrase
掌声雷动zhǎngshēngléidòngHSK 6+

to have a thunderous applause

phrase
大发雷霆dà fā léi tíngHSK 6+

to be furious; to fly into a terrible rage

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

打雷的时候不要站在树下,很危险。

Dǎléi de shíhou búyào zhàn zài shù xià, hěn wēixiǎn.

Don't stand under trees when thundering; it's very dangerous.

JiemianFeb 2026

雷军公布新一代SU7赤霞红配色,此前已开启...

léi jūn gōng bù xīn yī dài S U 7 chì xiá hóng pèi sè , cǐ qián yǐ kāi qǐ . . .

Lei Jun announced the new generation of SU7 Cabernet Red color scheme, which has been opened...

EttodayFeb 2026

...最严厉处分?快艇涉嫌9亿元阴阳约 美记曝雷纳德合约恐作废

. . . zuì yán lì chǔ fēn ? kuài tǐng shè xián 9 yì yuán yīn yáng yuē měi jì pù léi nà dé gě yuē kǒng zuò fèi

... The most severe punishment? The Clippers are suspected of a 900 million yuan yin-yang contract, and Meiji revealed that Leonard's contract may be invalidated

中国军网Feb 2026

西部战区空军雷达某旅(26.2.17)

xī bù zhàn qū kōng jūn léi dá mǒu lǚ ( 2 6 . 2 . 1 7 )

A brigade of the Western Theater Air Force radar (26.2.17)

百度新闻Feb 2026

新冬能·场外音丨金雷:中国队冬奥“现原形”?让我们..

xīn dōng néng chǎng wài yīn 丨 jīn léi zhōng guó duì dōng ào xiàn yuán xíng ? ràng wǒ men . .

The new Winter Olympics will be a great opportunity to see how the Chinese team will perform in the Winter Olympics. The first time I've ever seen one of these, I've seen a lot of them.

百度新闻Feb 2026

雷军晒本人AI拜年图并发文:今天初二,继续...

léi jūn shài běn rén bài nián tú bìng fā wén jīn tiān chū èr , jì xù . . .

Lei Jun sun myself AI New Year's Day picture and text: today the second day, continue...

Tatoeba

他扮演哈姆雷特的角色。

Tā bànyǎn Hāmǔléitè de juésè.

He played the part of Hamlet.

Tatoeba

托雷斯把球踢给了队友。

Tuō léi sī bǎ qiú tī gěi le duìyǒu.

Torres booted the ball to his teammate.

Tatoeba

我赌阿尔弗雷德叔叔会回来。

Wǒ dǔ ā'ěrfúléidé shūshu huì huílai.

I bet Uncle Alfred'll come back.

Tatoeba

你有弗雷迪的消息吗?

Nǐ yǒu Fúléi dí de xiāoxi ma?

Have you heard from Freddie?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced léi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 雷 (léi) mean in Chinese?
雷 (léi) primarily means "thunder." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #686 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 雷 have?
雷 is written with 13 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 雷?
The radical associated with 雷 is 雨 (rain). This radical appears in many characters related to rain.
What are the components of 雷?
雷 is composed of: 雨 (structural), 田 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱雨田 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 雷?
Common words with 雷 include: 雷达 (léi dá, "(loanword) radar"); 格雷 (gé léi, "Grey"); 地雷 (dì léi, "land mine"); 雷蒙德 (léi méng dé, "Raymond (name)"); 雷鸟 (léi niǎo, "capercaillie (Lagopus, several species)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 雷 (léi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation léi: 类 (kind), 累 (tired), 泪 ((bound form) tears), 垒 (rampart), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 雷 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 雷 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 雷 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.