埋まる

うまる · umaru · JLPT N3 · verb-godan

to be filled

⛏️🪨 埋 = 土 earth + 里 village: a village under the soil is buried

The kanji 埋 combines 土 (earth) with 里 (village, also a phonetic hint). 埋まる is the intransitive verb: something gets buried or filled up by itself, e.g. a hole fills in or a schedule fills up. Its transitive partner is 埋める (umeru), to bury or to fill.

埋 — earth 土 + village 里 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 土 (earth) gives the meaning of burying in soil, while 里 supplies the sound. The original sense was to cover or hide something underground, later extended to figurative meanings like 'bury oneself in work' or to conceal.

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