The kanji 磁 primarily means "magnetism" or "magnetic." It refers to the property of attracting iron or steel, as well as the related concepts like magnetic fields and related phenomena.

・On-yomi (音読み): ジ (ji) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None, as the concept is usually expressed with compound words.

⚫︎磁石 (jikishaku) Translation: magnet ⚫︎磁気 (jiki) Translation: magnetism, magnetic force ⚫︎磁器 (jiki) Translation: porcelain, ceramics

The kanji 磁 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). ⚫︎The semantic component is 石 (いし, "stone"), which provides the meaning element, as the earliest magnets were found in a naturally occurring magnetic stone called lodestone. ⚫︎The phonetic component is 茲 (し, "now" or "here"), which provides the sound element ジ (ji). ⚫︎Therefore, 磁 combines the idea of a stone with the sound "ji," representing the magnetic property associated with a particular type of stone.