The kanji 肉 primarily represents "meat" or "flesh". It refers to the soft tissue of an animal's body, especially when used as food. It can also figuratively represent the physical body.

・On-yomi (音読み): ニク (niku) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None, as the meaning is directly represented by the On-yomi.

⚫︎牛肉 (gyuuniku) Translation: Beef ⚫︎豚肉 (butaniku) Translation: Pork ⚫︎肉体 (nikutai) Translation: Physical body; flesh

The kanji 肉 is a pictograph. ⚫︎ It originally depicted a piece of meat. ⚫︎ The shape represents a side view of a piece of meat, usually with the indication of the fibers or veins. ⚫︎ Over time, the character simplified to its current form.