The kanji 妹 primarily represents "younger sister" or "little sister" in Japanese. It signifies a female sibling who is younger than the speaker or the person being referred to.

・On-yomi (音読み): マイ (mai) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): いもうと (imouto)

⚫︎ 妹 (いもうと) Translation: Younger sister ⚫︎ 妹さん (いもうとさん) Translation: Your/Their younger sister (polite) ⚫︎ 妹の家 (いもうとのうち) Translation: My younger sister's house

The kanji 妹 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいいもじ). ⚫︎ The left side is 女 (おんな, "woman" or "female"), which provides the semantic component, indicating that the character relates to a female. ⚫︎ The right side is 未 (み, "not yet" or "unripe"), which provides the phonetic component and gives a clue to the sound of the kanji. ⚫︎ Together, these components create a character that originally meant "younger sister," as in a young girl who is still growing and developing.