The kanji 湖 means "lake." It represents a body of water that is enclosed by land, typically larger than a pond. The core meaning focuses on the tranquil expanse of water and its surrounding environment.

・On-yomi (音読み): コ (ko) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): みずうみ (mizuumi) - This is the most common Japanese word for "lake."

⚫︎湖畔（こはん） Translation: Lakeside, the shore of a lake. ⚫︎湖水（こすい） Translation: Lake water. ⚫︎琵琶湖（びわこ） Translation: Lake Biwa (a famous lake in Japan).

The kanji 湖 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). ⚫︎ The left side, 氵 (水, みず, "water") is the semantic component, indicating the meaning is related to water. ⚫︎ The right side, 胡 (こ) is the phonetic component, which provides the sound of the character. The original meaning of 胡 was "what" or "why," but it now contributes the "ko" sound to the kanji. Therefore, the character indicates "a body of water," providing the meaning of "lake."