The kanji 伊 primarily represents "that" or "the one." It can also refer to a specific country name, namely "Italy."

・On-yomi (音読み): い (i) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None, as the meaning is primarily borrowed and does not have a native Japanese reading.

⚫︎伊太利 Translation: Italy ⚫︎伊勢神宮 Translation: Ise Grand Shrine (one of Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines) ⚫︎伊東 Translation: Ito (a Japanese surname and place name)

The kanji 伊 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字). The left side is a person radical (亻, 人), which provides a general meaning of "person" or "human." The right side is "尹" which acts as the phonetic component, indicating the sound and providing a less direct connection to the meaning. In ancient China, "伊" was used as a personal pronoun, akin to "that person" or "he/she." The meaning was later expanded to include place names and other specific references.