The kanji 物 primarily means "thing," "object," "matter," or "substance." It refers to anything that exists or can be perceived, encompassing both tangible and intangible things. It's a broad term that represents anything that has a physical presence or a conceptual existence.

・On-yomi (音読み): ブツ(butsu), モツ(motsu) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): もの(mono)

⚫︎食べ物(tabemono) Translation: Food; food item ⚫︎動物(doubutsu) Translation: Animal ⚫︎買い物(kaimono) Translation: Shopping; purchased goods

The kanji 物 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいいもじ). The left side is a radical called 牛 (ushi), meaning "cow" or "animal". The right side is a phonetic component, also pronounced ブツ(butsu), suggesting the sound. The original meaning of this character was related to animals or things belonging to animals and gradually expanded to encompass the broader concept of "things" or "objects". This illustrates how the character evolved to represent a general category.