雲
Meaning in Englishcloud
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
What does 雲 (kumo) mean? 雲 (kumo) means cloud — the common Japanese noun for the visible formations of condensed water droplets or ice crystals in the sky, used to describe weather, sky conditions, and literal cloud shapes in everyday speech and writing.
Main meanings
- 1. Figurative sense: used to suggest gloom, uncertainty, or an ominous sign in narratives and speech, as when clouds imply change or trouble.
- 2. In compound terms, refers to specific phenomena related to layers or masses of vapor such as seas of clouds, cloud gaps, or mist rather than single puffs.
- 3. Artistic and religious motif: employed symbolically in poetry, painting, and temple art to evoke transience, the heavens, or spiritual realms.
How to use it
Used across registers: common in casual conversation to talk about the sky, in formal meteorological reports to describe cloud cover, and in written compounds and literature for more specific or figurative senses; it functions as a standalone noun and as a component in set expressions, place names, and poetic descriptions.
Variants and close terms
- 曇り (kumori) - cloudiness, overcast
- 雲海 (unkai) - sea of clouds (a dense layer of clouds seen from above)
- 雲間 (kumoma) - break or gap in the clouds
- 晴れ (hare) - clear sky (antonym)
Composition
- Top component: 雨 (ame) — the rain radical, signals a weather-related meaning.
- Bottom component: 云 (un) — a phonetic/semantic element historically associated with clouds; together the parts yield the meaning 'cloud'.
Origin
The character 雲 (kumo) arrived in Japan with Chinese writing during the period when kanji were adopted (roughly 5th–8th centuries CE) and appears in early Japanese poetry and chronicles; it has been part of weather vocabulary, place names, and literary imagery since the Nara and Heian periods.
Word class
noun (名詞)