溝 means “ditch, groove, rift”

みぞ · mizo

Also: gutter, sewer, drain

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)
みぞ
On'yomi (Chinese reading)
コウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

Water (氵) beside 冓, timbers crisscrossed in a frame, as in 構: picture a ditch shored up with planks. 溝 is a groove or gutter, 排水溝 a drain, and 日本海溝 a deep trench off the Pacific coast; between people, a 溝 is a rift.

Used in 溝 (mizo, ditch/rift), 排水溝 (haisuikou, drain), and 海溝 (kaikou, ocean trench)

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.