The kanji 湾 primarily represents a "bay," "inlet," or "gulf" – a body of water partially enclosed by land. It describes a curved indentation of a shoreline.

・On-yomi (音読み): ワン (wan) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): 入り江 (irie) - 入り江 means "bay" or "inlet".

⚫︎ 東京湾 Translation: Tokyo Bay ⚫︎ 湾岸 Translation: bay coast; gulf coast ⚫︎ 湾内 Translation: within the bay; in the bay

The kanji 湾 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 provides the meaning of water. ⚫︎ The phonetic component is 䜌 (meaning "twisting," "winding"), which contributes the sound and hints at the shape of a bay, with its curved coastline. 䜌 is no longer used as an independent character. It can be viewed as the combination of 糸 (silk thread, suggesting something that winds) and 䜌 (changing). Therefore, 湾 represents a curving or winding body of water.