雲

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 空に白い雲が浮かんでいます。▶ —
   White clouds are floating in the sky.
2. 雲の形が動物に見える。▶ —
   The cloud shape looks like an animal.

Collocations

Mnemonic

くも — 雲, Yamato. The noun 'cloud'. The kanji 雲 is 雨 (rain) + 云 (speak / utter) ── the old script saw a cloud as 'a thing carrying rain'. A homophone trap: 雲 kumo (cloud) and 蜘蛛 kumo (spider) share the sound. The kanji decides which. Cloud-classification vocabulary is rich ── 入道雲 nyuudougumo (cumulonimbus, summer), うろこ雲 uroko-gumo (cirrocumulus, autumn), 雲海 unkai (a sea of clouds, mountains). In Japanese verse, kumo binds with 浮き uki (floating = impermanence) ── 浮雲 ukigumo (a drifting cloud) = the metaphor of life as drift. Korean 'tteungureum' rides the same image. The Korean reading un is sister to the onyomi うん.

Quick check

1. Homophone of kumo (different kanji, different meaning)?

   • 蜘蛛 — spider
   • 雪 — snow
   • 雨 — rain
   • 霧 — fog