The kanji 涙 primarily means "tears." It represents the liquid that is produced by the eyes, usually in response to strong emotions such as sadness, joy, or pain. The character encapsulates the idea of something that flows, specifically the emotional outpouring that is associated with weeping.

・On-yomi (音読み): ルイ (rui) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): なみだ (namida)

⚫︎ 涙を流す Translation: To shed tears; to cry. ⚫︎ 感動して涙が出た Translation: Tears welled up in my eyes from emotion; I was moved to tears. ⚫︎ 涙脆い Translation: Easily moved to tears; tearful.

The kanji 涙 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). It is formed by combining two parts: ⚫︎ The water radical (氵, mizū) on the left side, which indicates "water" or "liquid." This is the semantic component, providing the meaning related to the character's core meaning. ⚫︎ 戻 (rui) on the right side, which provides the phonetic component. This part contributes to the pronunciation (rui). Therefore, the character suggests "water" (氵) coming from the eyes and is pronounced "rui." Over time, the character evolved to represent tears specifically.