The kanji 難 primarily conveys the meanings of "difficulty," "hardship," "trouble," and "challenging." It signifies something that is not easily accomplished, requires effort, or presents obstacles. It can also imply something complex or problematic.

・On-yomi (音読み): ⚫︎ nan (ナン) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ⚫︎ muzukashii (むずかしい) - difficult, hard ⚫︎ katai (かたい) - tough, hard (less common)

⚫︎ 困難 (konnan) Translation: difficulty, hardship, problem ⚫︎ 難問 (nanmon) Translation: difficult question, hard problem ⚫︎ 避難 (hinan) Translation: evacuation

The kanji 難 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). The right side of the character is 隹 (fū), which represents a short-tailed bird. The left side is 堇 (kin) or a similar component, which originally depicted a plant. The original meaning might have been related to the difficulty of catching birds or something being entangled or constrained like plant growth. Over time, the meaning shifted to represent difficulty and hardship. The association of the bird element could represent the difficulty in capturing something elusive.