noun
A large body of water surrounded by land.
この湖はとても深い。
This lake is very deep.
夏になると湖で泳ぐ人が多い。
In summer, many people swim in the lake.
Standard kanji spelling for 'lake'.
The reading みずうみ is a compound of 水 (みず, 'water') and 海 (うみ, 'sea'), literally 'water sea'. The kanji 湖 is a phono-semantic compound with 氵 (water) and 胡 (phonetic, also suggesting 'vast').