The kanji 酪 primarily means "dairy," "milk products," or "to milk." It often refers to products derived from milk, such as butter, cheese, and yogurt. The core meaning is related to the processing and use of milk.

・On-yomi (音読み): ・ラク (raku) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ・There are no common Kun-yomi readings for this kanji.

⚫︎酪農 (rakunō) Translation: dairy farming ⚫︎乳酪 (nyūraku) Translation: dairy products (generally) ⚫︎チーズの原料は牛乳と酪です。 (Chīzu no genryō wa gyūnyū to raku desu.) Translation: The ingredients for cheese are milk and dairy products.

The kanji 酪 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), a phono-semantic compound character. The character is composed of the semantic component 酉 (ひよみ, tori) meaning "wine vessel" or "alcohol" and the phonetic component 各 (かく, kaku) meaning "each" or "every." The meaning comes from the ancient method of preserving milk or making dairy products using a wine vessel.