Several parts combine into one character.

猫 is a phonetic-semantic compound: 犭 (the beast-side radical, indicating an animal) plus 苗 (miáo, "young grain shoot / sprout"). 苗 contributes the sound (mao / myo / miao), but folk etymology adds a charming gloss: a cat is the beast that protects 苗 (sprouts) from rats — a working farm-cat description. The traditional form was 貓 (using the 豸 radical), but Japan and Mainland China both standardized on 猫 with the 犭 radical. The Mandarin pronunciation māo also retains an onomatopoetic trace of meow.

Korean reading "myo." Surprisingly, this character barely registers in Korean daily vocabulary — Korean strongly prefers the native (goyangi). Sino-Korean compounds with 猫 are rare and mostly literary: 三猫圖 (sammyodo, "three cats painting" — a classical painting subject), 黑猫 (heungmyo, black cat). Korean cat-related vocabulary lives almost entirely in Hangul.

Mandarin māo, 1st tone. Here 猫 is a fully integrated everyday word: 猫 (māo, cat), 小猫 (xiǎomāo, kitten / "kitty"), 猫咪 (māomī, kitty — affectionate doubled form), and the wonderful 熊猫 (xióngmāo, "bear-cat" = panda). The compound 熊猫 is one of Mandarin's most charming animal names, classifying the panda as a kind of cat — though biologically pandas are bears.

Japanese on-reading ビョウ (byō) is rare and formal — 愛猫 (aibyō, beloved cat). The kun-reading ねこ (neko) dominates: 猫 (neko, cat), 子猫 (koneko, kitten), 黒猫 (kuroneko, black cat). Two beloved compounds: 猫舌 (nekojita, literally "cat tongue" = a person who can't handle hot food, since cats lap warm milk slowly), and 招き猫 (manekineko, the beckoning cat statue — the right paw raised invites money, the left paw invites customers). Japanese internet culture has elevated cats to perhaps the most beloved animal in modern media — 猫カフェ (neko café), 猫の手も借りたい ("I'd borrow even a cat's paw" = I'm so busy I'd take any help).

Memory aid: 犭 (beast) + 苗 (sprouts) — the animal that guards the sprouts. Phonetic borrowing matches the actual meow.