What does “굉음” mean in Korean?

굉음 is not just a loud noise — it is a thunderous, earth-shaking boom, the word Korean news reaches for when something explodes, crashes, or roars. It is Sino-Korean, built from 轟 (“roaring, thunderous”) and 음 (音, “sound”). The payoff is in that first character: 轟 is literally three 車 (“cart”) stacked together — picture the rumble of many vehicles at once, and you can hear what 굉음 means.

In this report a 굉음 rattles a Massachusetts neighborhood — residents mistake it for a bomb or an earthquake (지진) until NASA explains it was a one-meter meteor exploding in the air with the energy of 300 tons of TNT. That 음 (音, “sound”) ending is a building block worth knowing: 소음 (騷音) is “noise,” 발음 (發音) is “pronunciation,” 잡음 (雜音) is “static/interference.” Spot the 음, and you can guess a whole family of sound words on sight — while 굉음 stays reserved for the big, frightening ones.