CJK compatibility ideograph FA52

It means calamity, misfortune, or disaster. 禍 is the old-form glyph of 禍, not a separate meaning. In Japanese compounds it is read ka; the native Japanese readings wazawai and maga also mean calamity or misfortune.

Older forms of 禍 are attested in the Warring States period. The Han-era Chinese character dictionary Shuowen Jiezi analyzes the character as a meaning part 示, written 礻 on the left, plus the sound part 咼. JIS X 0213:2000, a Japanese character-encoding standard, gave this variant a separate source position so older text could be converted out and back without losing the glyph.

Why does 禍 look different from 禍?

The meaning stays the same; only the encoded form changes. Unicode treats 禍 as a compatibility form of 禍, and Japanese reference works label it an old form or variant. Whether the two shapes look distinct depends on the font you use. Compatibility normalization, NFKC or NFKD, folds 禍 into 禍; preserve the original string when the exact source form matters.

How does this character vary by language?

Its sense stays near calamity, while routine forms vary by language. Classical Chinese dictionaries also record 禍 for wrongdoing. Japanese compounds use it for disaster and harm, as in 戦禍, meaning war devastation, and 疫病禍, harm tied to an epidemic.

Across Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the character family centers on calamity or misfortune, but routine written forms differ. Japanese references show 禍 as the old form beside 禍; traditional Chinese uses 禍, while simplified Chinese uses 祸.