爆炸
bào​zhà HSK6

explode

爆 bào crackle

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 暴 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
暴
暴 Sound component
bào violent

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpaewHpˤrawk-s explode (not pre-Qín)

說文解字

《說文》：“爆，灼也。从火，暴聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

炸 zhà to fry in oil, explode

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 乍 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
乍
乍 Sound component
zhà, zuò suddenly

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔr'aːɡs
zreːb

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang