The kanji 蛇 means "snake" or "serpent." It represents a limbless reptile known for its long, slender body and scales. This character encapsulates the essence of snakes, including their slithering movement and association with both danger and symbolic meaning.

・On-yomi (音読み): ジャ (ja) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): へび (hebi)

⚫︎ 蛇 (hebi) Translation: Snake ⚫︎ 蛇口 (jakuchi) Translation: Faucet (literally "snake mouth," referring to the spout) ⚫︎ 毒蛇 (dokuja) Translation: Venomous snake

The kanji 蛇 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). ⚫︎ The radical on the left side is 虫 (mushi), meaning "insect" or "worm," which is used more broadly to denote animals with segmented bodies. ⚫︎ The right side is 它 (ta), a phonetic component, providing the sound element "ja." Thus, the character combines a visual clue about the animal's classification with a sound element. It visually represents a snake (蛇) as a type of animal (虫), using the pronunciation element 它 (ta).