zāi disaster; calamity

Made up of [ huǒ fire radical 86, mián roof radical 40]
Made with 7 strokes.
What could be more a potent picture of a disaster? Just 'fire' put under a 'roof' and you have the concept of 'calamity'

Related characters


Also uses huǒ component: dēng (lamp) kǎo (to roast) ; miè (to extinguish) ; pào (cannon) ; qiú (autumn) ; zhà (to explode)
Also uses mián component: ān (peace) bǎo (jewel) ; dìng (to set) ; (rich) ; gōng (palace) ; guān (official) ; hán (cold) ; jiā (house) ; (customer) ; nìng (better) ; róng (to hold) ; shì (room) ; shí (real) ; song (Song) ; (it) ; xué (cave) ; (proper) ; yuàn (courtyard) ; (letter)

Different tone

zài (again) ; zài (exist) ; zài (to carry)

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Pronunciation

Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Proverbs

幸灾乐祸 xìng zāi lè huò The story is of a king who delighted in the plight of the neighboring kingdom that was suffering from famine and would not help them even though he had received help when his people were suffering. So it means sadistic glee.