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I'm a graphic designer and illustrator working on a personal character design
project about animals made out of combining different asymmetrical figures.

I've been trying to choose a name for my project, and I found out about this
Japanese kanji '図' (romanized 'Zu') which according to various dictionaries
that I have consulted, means "figure" but also means: illustration, drawing,
and most importantly "diagram".

I don't trust these dictionaries enough though, so what I need to know is if
'図' is really used to say "figure" or "illustration" in Japanese since I want
the project to be called 'Zumals', a word combination between that word 'Zu'
from Japanese, and the word 'animals' taken from English.
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question
meaning kanji japanese-to-english
What does the kanji '図' mean?
The Kanji Learner's Course lists this kanji with the keyword "drawing". It's
not strictly the meaning of the kanji, but most of the time words containing 図
will be related to that meaning. Kanji, in general, don't have a meaning
directly translatable to English.

Some examples:  
図書館 (toshokan) Library  
図鑑 (zukan) Pictorial book  
図表 (zuhyou) Diagram
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図 ("zu") is a word that primarily refers to technical diagrams and
illustrations. A typical 図 is something shown in [this
page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagram):

[![図](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AkEif.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AkEif.png)

Technical illustrations are also 図, but artistic illustrations are not.

[![図 and
non-図](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uixDw.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uixDw.png)

The English word "figure" [has many meanings](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/figure). 図 refers to "figure" as in "This research
paper has one table and four figures".

* * *

So the first thing you have to do is **check if you're really making a 図**
like the ones shown above.

However, even if you're actually making 図, that's not enough. Technically
speaking, "zumal" is a
[portmanteau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau), but 図 is a very
short word. It's very unlikely that anyone who is familiar with both English
and Japanese will notice your intention by looking at this word. If that's not
a problem to you, go ahead, but if you're thinking of using "zumal" as a
catchy title, you may want to reconsider.
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answer