• wave, ripple, flow;
  • undulation;

Etymology

Components:

水 (물 수, “water”) – semantic;

皮 (가죽 피) – phonetic;

Usage in Korean

波 captures the concept of rhythmic motion, both in nature and metaphor, and extends across language, science, military, religion, and even geopolitical naming.

Literal:

물결, 파도 – wave in water;

흐름, 진동 – flow, motion;

Extended meanings:

파동(波動) – vibration, fluctuation;

파장(波長) – wavelength;

파상공세(波狀攻勢) – successive waves of attack (military tactic);

제파(梯波) – tactical term from military strategy, meaning wave-like attacks or assaults;

It also represents the country of Poland (波蘭) in transliterated Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

물결
mulgyeol
pa
Kangxi radical:85, + 5
Strokes:8
Unicode:U+6CE2
Cangjie input:
  • 水木竹水 (EDHE)
Composition:
  • ⿰ 氵 皮

Characters next to each other in the list

References