The kanji 泳 generally means "to swim" or "swimming." It describes the act of moving through water using bodily movements.

・On-yomi (音読み): エイ (ei) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): およ（ぐ） (oyo(gu))

⚫︎ 水泳 Translation: swimming ⚫︎ 泳ぎが得意 Translation: good at swimming ⚫︎ 海で泳ぐ Translation: to swim in the sea

The kanji 泳 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). ⚫︎ The semantic component is 氵 (water, みず, mizu) which indicates the meaning relates to water or liquid. ⚫︎ The phonetic component is 永 (えい, ei), which gives an indication of the sound. The original meaning of 永 is "long, eternal". The character 泳 combines the concept of movement in water (water radical) with a sound associated with "long". Over time, it specifically became associated with the act of swimming.