- 米 — uncooked rice
- 米国 — America (USA)
- 白米 — white rice
- 玄米 — brown rice
- 精米 — polished rice
- 渡米 — going to the U.S.
米 is a pictograph of grain clusters arranged in rows. It originally represented grains like rice and millet. It later came to represent uncooked rice in general, and by extension, the U.S. (as an abbreviation) through its phonetic reading ベイ.
米を炊きます。
I cook rice.
米国からの輸入です。
This is imported from the United States.