The kanji 銅 primarily means "copper." This refers to the reddish-brown metallic element. It can also broadly represent anything made of copper.

・On-yomi (音読み): ドウ (dō) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): あかがね (akagane) - This reading is less common and refers to copper itself, especially in older Japanese.

⚫︎ 銅貨 (dōka) Translation: Copper coin ⚫︎ 銅像 (dōzō) Translation: Bronze/Copper statue ⚫︎ 銅メダル (dō medaru) Translation: Bronze medal

The kanji 銅 is a phono-semantic compound. ・The left side, 金 (kane/kin), represents "metal" or "gold." This provides the semantic component, indicating that the character is related to a metal. ・The right side, 同 (dō/onaji), provides the phonetic component, suggesting the sound of the kanji. 同 means "same" or "similar," and the sound association helped create the pronunciation ドウ (dō) for copper.