“字义”常见的英文表达是 “meaning of a character” 或 “character meaning”。
meaning of a character：明确指出是某个字符（字）的含义，在探讨汉字、符号等单个字符意义时常用。例如：We need to understand the meaning of each character in this ancient text.（我们需要理解这篇古文中每个字的意义。）
character meaning：也是表达“字义”的简洁说法。例如：The teacher explained the character meaning in detail.（老师详细解释了这个字的意思 。）