• 御飯ごはん — cooked rice / meal
• 朝飯あさめし — breakfast
• 昼飯ひるめし — lunch
• 晩飯ばんめし — dinner
• 飯店はんてん — restaurant
• 飯台はんだい — low dining table
• 赤飯せきはん — festive rice with beans
• 飯事ままごと — playing house (lit. make-believe meals)

飯 combines the 食 (eat) radical with 反 (return/turn), symbolizing food that “fills and returns energy.” In Japanese, it came to mean both “cooked rice” and “meal” in general. The casual kun-yomi “めし” often carries a masculine or earthy tone, while the on-yomi “ハン” appears in compound and formal words.

今日きょうの 晩飯ばんめしは カレーです。
Tonight’s dinner is curry.

朝あさは 白しろい飯めしを 食たべた。
I ate white rice for breakfast.