The kanji 鯛 represents "sea bream" or "red snapper." It specifically refers to a type of fish that is often associated with celebrations and is considered auspicious in Japanese culture.

・On-yomi (音読み): たい (tai) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): たい (tai)

⚫︎ 真鯛 Translation: Red sea bream (a specific type of sea bream) ⚫︎ 鯛めし Translation: Rice cooked with sea bream (a dish) ⚫︎ お祝いに鯛を食べる Translation: To eat sea bream for a celebration

The kanji 鯛 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字). The left side is the radical 魚(うお, sakana), meaning "fish". The right side is 甬(よう, yō), which is the phonetic component, indicating the pronunciation "tai". Therefore, 鯛 represents "fish" with a pronunciation associated with "tai" to designate a particular kind of fish – the sea bream.