• 米こめ — uncooked rice
• 米国べいこく — America (USA)
• 白米はくまい — white rice
• 玄米げんまい — brown rice
• 精米せいまい — polished rice
• 渡米とべい — going to the U.S.

米 is a pictograph of grain clusters arranged in rows. It originally represented grains like rice and millet. It later came to represent uncooked rice in general, and by extension, the U.S. (as an abbreviation) through its phonetic reading ベイ.