雲

くも · kumo · JLPT N4 · noun

cloud

☁️ 雲 = rain (雨) on top + 云 (to say/vapor) below; kumo also means spider

The kanji stacks the rain radical 雨 over 云, the original character for rising vapor: a cloud is rain that has not fallen yet. Sound hook: kumo is also the word for spider (蜘蛛), so one sound covers both sky-webs and spider webs.

More Japanese words · How Japanese works