The kanji 流 primarily conveys the concept of "flow," "to flow," or "current." It suggests the movement of something, typically water, in a continuous and directional manner. This can extend to other concepts such as the passage of time or the spread of influence.

・On-yomi (音読み): リュウ (ryuu) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): なが(れる) (naga(reru)), なが(す) (naga(su))

⚫︎ 流れ (nagare) Translation: flow; current; stream ⚫︎ 流れる (nagareru) Translation: to flow; to run (e.g. water); to stream; to drift ⚫︎ 流行 (ryuukou) Translation: fashion; trend; vogue;流行する (ryuukousuru) - to be in fashion, to be popular

The kanji 流 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字). The left side is a water radical 氵 (sanzui), which indicates that the character is related to water. The right side is the phonetic component 㐬, which provides the sound and the original meaning of "to float." Thus, the character was formed to express the action of water flowing or things floating.