Several parts combine into one character.

村 is a phono-semantic character: 木 (tree) carries the meaning, 寸 (inch) lends the sound. A place where people gather to live among the trees — a village. 寸 only lends the sound "cun"; it has nothing to do with the meaning.

Mandarin: cūn, level 1st tone. 村庄 (cūnzhuāng, village), 农村 (nóngcūn, the countryside), 村民 (cūnmín, villager). In China's administrative hierarchy 村 is the smallest grassroots unit.

Japanese: on-reading ソン (son), kun むら (mura). 村 (mura, village), 農村 (nōson, farming village), 村長 (sonchō, village head). The base unit of Japanese local government is 市町村 (shichōson, city-town-village), and 村 is the smallest of the three. It is common in Japanese surnames — 中村 (Nakamura), 木村 (Kimura), 村上 (Murakami).

Korean hanja-sound "chon": 農村 (nongchon, farming village), 漁村 (eochon, fishing village), 地球村 (jigguchon, "the global village"). In Korean, "chon-seureopda" even means "countrified". Note it is a different character from the 寸 used to count degrees of kinship.

Memory aid: an inch (寸) beside a tree (木) — the place where people cluster among the trees, a village.