嫌い
きらい · kirai · JLPT N5 · na-adj
dislike
🥦 Sounds like key-rye: I dislike rye bread so much I lock it away with a key
kirai splits into ki (key) + rai (rye). The kanji 嫌 means dislike or aversion, and the trailing い is part of the reading. It is the direct opposite of 好き (suki, like), and both take the particle が: Xが嫌い = I dislike X.
嫌 — woman radical 女 + 兼 (combine, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 女 (woman) suggests the meaning, while 兼 supplies the sound. The original sense related to suspicion or dislike, possibly tied to social judgments. Over time it broadened to mean 'to dislike,' 'to suspect,' or 'to find objectionable.'