The kanji 欲 generally conveys the meaning of "desire," "want," "greed," or "wish." It represents a strong feeling of wanting something, either materially or emotionally. It can be a positive desire, like a wish for happiness, or a negative desire, like greed.

・On-yomi (音読み): ヨク (yoku) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ほしい (hoshii) - This is used in the adjective meaning "to want" or "desire."

⚫︎ 食欲 (shoku-yoku) Translation: Appetite; desire for food. ⚫︎ 欲張り (yokubari) Translation: Greedy person; someone who is greedy. ⚫︎ 欲を出す (yoku o dasu) Translation: To become greedy; to give in to desire.

The kanji 欲 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), a phono-semantic compound. The left side, 欠 (ketsu), which resembles a person kneeling, provides the semantic component. It originally meant "to lack" or "deficiency." The right side, 谷 (tani), the phonetic component, which means "valley" or "gully," indicating the sound. Therefore the original meaning of 欲 related to the situation where people felt deficiency, that is, wanting something to fill the lack.