The kanji 死 fundamentally represents the concept of death, cessation of life, or expiring. It encompasses both the physical act of dying and the state of being dead. It can also figuratively express something that is no longer active, alive, or viable.

・On-yomi (音読み): シ (shi) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): し (shi)

⚫︎ 死亡 Translation: Death; fatality ⚫︎ 死ぬ Translation: To die ⚫︎ 死体 Translation: Corpse; dead body

The kanji 死 is a pictophonetic character. The left side is a simplified form of a character representing "person" or "human," and the right side originally depicted a person lying down. Over time, the right side evolved to represent "halt" or "stop." Thus, the character combined elements representing "human" and "halt," pictorially communicating the concept of death—the cessation of life. The earliest forms of the character show a person lying down with the indication of the end of life.