The kanji 倍 (ばい) primarily means "times," "fold," or "double." It signifies a multiple of a quantity, indicating an increase or multiplication.

・On-yomi (音読み): バイ (bai) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None commonly used as a single word, but it's part of compound words

⚫︎2倍 Translation: 2 times, double ⚫︎倍増 (ばいぞう) Translation: to double; to increase greatly ⚫︎倍率 (ばいりつ) Translation: magnification; rate of increase

The kanji 倍 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), which means a character that combines a semantic component (meaning) with a phonetic component (sound). The left side is 人 (nin/hito) which means "person," indicating something related to people. The right side represents the sound element and a phonetic component. In this case, 倍originally indicated a comparison. The meaning evolved to "times" or "fold" through its usage in comparisons and multiplications.