The kanji 橋 primarily means "bridge". It refers to a structure built to span a physical obstacle, such as a river, valley, or road, allowing people, vehicles, or other things to cross. This is its fundamental, core meaning.

・On-yomi (音読み): キョウ (kyou) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): はし (hashi)

⚫︎橋 (hashi) Translation: bridge ⚫︎橋本 (hashimoto) Translation: Hashimoto (a Japanese surname, literally "bridge origin" or "bridge base") ⚫︎鉄橋 (tekkyou) Translation: railway bridge, iron bridge

The kanji 橋 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). It is made up of two parts: ⚫︎ The radical 木 (ki, meaning "tree" or "wood"), which provides a semantic element, indicating that the character is related to something made of wood or related to the structure of wood. ⚫︎ The phonetic component 喬 (kyou), which contributes the sound and is related to "high" or "tall". The original meaning suggests a bridge made from wood, which is why the "wood" radical is included. The phonetic element gives a clue to its pronunciation.