浩劫
hào jié · HSK 7
calamity
🌊☄️ 浩 vast + 劫 disaster = a vast catastrophe, an apocalyptic calamity
浩 carries the water radical 氵and means vast or immense; 劫 means disaster or to plunder. Together they name a calamity on an overwhelming, world-scale level.
劫 — 去 (qù, phonetic) + 力 (lì, strength)
劫 combines 去 'to go/remove' as the phonetic component with 力 'strength/force' as the semantic component. The original meaning is to take by force, hence 'rob' or 'plunder.' It later extended to mean 'calamity' or 'disaster,' and in Buddhist texts it transliterates the Sanskrit word 'kalpa,' a vast cosmic age.