The kanji 伸 primarily conveys the meaning of "to stretch," "to extend," or "to develop." It suggests an action of lengthening, expanding, or growing, whether physically or metaphorically. This can refer to physical stretching, the growth of plants, or the development of abilities and skills.

・On-yomi (音読み): シン 伸 ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): の(びる) 伸, の(ばす) 伸

⚫︎ 伸長 (しんちょう) Translation: Height; elongation; extension. ⚫︎ 能力を伸ばす (のうりょくをのばす) Translation: To improve one's abilities; to develop skills. ⚫︎ 体を伸す (からだをのばす) Translation: To stretch one's body.

The kanji 伸 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), which means it's a character formed by combining a semantic component (meaning) and a phonetic component (sound). The left side is the 人 (nin, person radical) that represents a person, and the right side is 申 (shin), originally a depiction of lightning. 申 provides the sound and possibly suggests movement or extending. So, the original meaning was "to stretch the body," and it later extended to mean "to extend" or "develop" more generally.