The kanji 泳 means "to swim" or "swimming." It encapsulates the action of moving through water using one's limbs.

・On-yomi (音読み): エイ (ei) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): およ（ぐ） (oyo(gu))

⚫︎ 水泳 Translation: swimming ⚫︎ 泳ぎが得意 Translation: good at swimming ⚫︎ 海で泳ぐ Translation: to swim in the sea

The kanji 泳 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). ⚫︎ The semantic component is 氵 (water, みず), indicating that the character is related to water. ⚫︎ The phonetic component is 永 (えい/ei, meaning "long" or "eternal"), which provides the sound and hints at the continuous, flowing movement involved in swimming. The original meaning of 永(long) might have been influenced to express swimming, which is the movement in a long period.