The kanji 励 primarily conveys the idea of encouragement, motivation, and support. It implies urging someone on, giving them strength, or cheering them up to achieve a goal. It can also suggest working hard or striving towards something.

・On-yomi (音読み): ・レイ (rei) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ・はげ-ます (hage-masu): to encourage, to cheer on ・はげ-む (hage-mu): to be encouraged, to strive

⚫︎励ます Translation: to encourage; to cheer up ⚫︎励みになる Translation: to be encouraging; to be a source of encouragement ⚫︎激励 Translation: encouragement; to spur on; to inspire

The kanji 励 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). The semantic component is 力 (chikara), meaning "power" or "strength". The phonetic component is 厲 (rei) which originally depicted a sharp stone used to sharpen a blade and later came to have meanings like "severe" and "to encourage". The combination suggests "using power to encourage" or "to encourage with strength". The character has undergone simplification over time.