The kanji 耕 generally signifies "to cultivate," "to plow," or "to till" land for agriculture. It represents the act of working the soil to prepare it for planting and growing crops. This core meaning relates to the essential practice of agriculture and ensuring the land is fertile and ready for farming.

・On-yomi (音読み): コウ 耕 ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): たが-やす 耕 (tagasu)

⚫︎ 耕作 (こうさく) Translation: Cultivation; farming; tilling; plowing ⚫︎ 耕地 (こうち) Translation: Cultivated land; arable land; farmland ⚫︎ 農耕 (のうこう) Translation: Agriculture; farming

The kanji 耕 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). The semantic component is 耒 (らい), which depicts a plow, indicating its meaning. The phonetic component is 井 (せい/しょう), which contributes to the sound. The combination of the plow radical and the phonetic component illustrates the act of plowing or cultivating the land with a plow.