The kanji 族 primarily means "tribe," "family," "group," or "clan." It implies a group of people connected by blood, shared ancestry, or a common identity. It often refers to a close-knit social unit.

・On-yomi (音読み): ぞく (zoku) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None

⚫︎家族 (kazoku) Translation: Family ⚫︎民族 (minzoku) Translation: Ethnic group, race ⚫︎同族 (dōzoku) Translation: People of the same clan, relative

The kanji 族 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). It combines two components: the radical 矢 (ya, meaning "arrow") and the phonetic 音 (on, meaning "sound"). The left side "矢" once looked like “大”, which is used as a phonetic component. This means the character was originally developed by combining “arrow” and “sound”. It is meant to emphasize the concept of "people sharing the same characteristics or the same origin". The meaning evolved to "group" or "clan" over time.