The kanji 薪 primarily means "firewood," "fuelwood," or "brushwood." It refers to wood that is cut and prepared for burning, typically for heating or cooking. It can also figuratively represent fuel or something that feeds a fire, metaphorically.

・On-yomi (音読み): シン (shin) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): まき (maki)

⚫︎ 薪を割る (maki o waru) Translation: To chop firewood. ⚫︎ 薪ストーブ (makisutōbu) Translation: Wood-burning stove. ⚫︎ 薪炭 (shintan) Translation: Firewood and charcoal (collectively).

The kanji 薪 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). ⚫︎ The semantic component is 木 (ki), meaning "tree" or "wood," indicating the category of the item. ⚫︎ The phonetic component is 斤 (kin), which originally represented an axe and its sound. Thus, the entire character combines the idea of "wood" with the sound associated with cutting or chopping the wood to make firewood.