thunder; thunder god
Archaic word for thunder, often personified as a deity. In modern Japanese, 雷 (かみなり) is the standard term.
Stories of the thunder god appear in the Kojiki.
Narukami is an old name that deifies thunder.
Standard kanji spelling for this archaic word.
Explicitly spells out the verb 鳴る and 神; less common than 鳴神.
Ateji spelling; normally read かみなり. Using this spelling for なるかみ is archaic and may cause confusion.
Compound of 鳴る (なる, 'to sound, to roar') and 神 (かみ, 'god'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word personifies thunder as a roaring deity.