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Kanji for Rage

The kanji most commonly used for "Rage" are 怒、憤.

Kanji that mean Rage

  • to be angry

    Also associated with intense, to strive.

    Onyomi: do, nu Kunyomi: ika.ru, oko.ru 9 strokes Jōyō

  • indignation, resentment, rage

    Onyomi: fun Kunyomi: ikidooru 15 strokes Jōyō

怒 (do / ikari) is anger itself — the heart radical 心 under 奴, which lends the sound. 怒る is the everyday verb “to get angry”; 激怒 is fury; 怒声 an angry roar. In classical Buddhist art the guardian deities wear the 怒り顔, the wrathful face that scares off evil — anger, in the right place, protects.

憤 (fun) is the more interesting rage: indignation — anger with a moral engine. 憤り is resentment at injustice; 義憤 is righteous indignation; 発憤 (also written 発奮) is to be roused to determined effort by that heat. Where 怒 flares at anything, 憤 burns at what is wrong.

Japanese also keeps 瞋 for the Buddhist sin of wrath — one of the three poisons — a reminder that the tradition regards rage as something to master, not to celebrate.

Words using Rage kanji

Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.

  • 怒り いかり Listen anger; rage; fury
  • 憤り いきどおり Listen resentment; indignation; anger
  • 怒る おこる Listen to get angry; to get mad; to lose one's temper
  • 憤慨 ふんがい Listen indignation; resentment
  • 怒らせる おこらせる Listen to make (someone) angry; to anger; to offend
  • 激怒 げきど Listen rage; fury
  • 怒鳴り込む どなりこむ Listen to storm in with a yell
  • 怒涛 どとう Listen surging waves; raging billows; turbulent

Before you use Rage kanji

怒 on skin reads as plain "anger" — a Japanese viewer will wonder at whom. If the idea is passionate refusal of injustice, 憤 (indignation) or the word 義憤 carries that moral edge. And if the image you want is the wrathful guardian rather than the temper, consider the deity's name itself — 不動 (Fudō, the Immovable) — instead of the raw emotion.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

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