Several parts combine into one character.

The traditional 緣 is a phonetic-semantic compound: 糸 (silk thread) + 彖 (tuàn, "edge / hem / decorative trimming" — providing the sound). The original meaning was concrete and tactile: the silken trim woven along the edge of a garment, the binding that finishes a hem. From this textile origin grew one of the most poetically expansive metaphors in CJK vocabulary: the edge as the place where two things meet → meeting, encounter, the karmic connection that draws lives together. The semantic leap from "hem of a robe" to "the threads of fate that bind two souls" is uniquely Buddhist-influenced. Japan simplified to 縁; Mainland China to 缘.

Korean reading "yeon." 因緣 (inyeon, karmic / destined connection — perhaps the most culturally loaded Korean Sino-Korean word for human relationships; used in dating contexts, family contexts, and Buddhist contexts), 緣分 (yeonbun, fated portion / destined relationship), 血緣 (hyeoryeon, blood relation), 地緣 (jiyeon, geographic ties / hometown connections — plays a major role in Korean political and social networks), 絶緣 (jeoryeon, severing of ties / cutting off contact — also "insulation" in electrical contexts).

Mandarin yuán, 2nd tone (simplified 缘). 缘分 (yuánfèn, predestined affinity), 有缘 (yǒuyuán, "having affinity" = "we are fated to meet" — common phrase in Chinese romantic dramas and casual encounters), 边缘 (biānyuán, edge / margin — including political "marginalization"), 缘故 (yuángù, reason / cause). Mandarin keeps 缘 active in literary registers; the single character appears in song titles and poetry constantly.

Japanese on-reading エン (en) — 縁 (en, connection / relationship — used standalone), 縁起 (engi, omen / Buddhist origin story / good or bad luck — 縁起がいい = "auspicious"), 縁談 (endan, marriage proposal / matchmaking discussion). Kun-readings: ふち (fuchi, "edge / rim") — 縁 (fuchi, edge), 額縁 (gakubuchi, picture frame); and ゆかり (yukari, "connection / relation by association") — 縁 (yukari) is used in poetic expressions: 縁の地 (yukari no chi, "the place I have a connection to"). The polite expression ご縁 (go-en, "honored connection") is used widely in Japanese formal speech: 良いご縁を ("may good connections come to you") is a phrase exchanged at New Year and at weddings.

Memory aid: silk thread (糸) plus 彖 (edge / hem) — the silken trim at the boundary of a garment became the metaphor for the threads that bind people together.