I recently got to level 60 (yay!) and when doing the level 60 kanji, I was shown the kanji 漣, told that it meant “ripples” and was read “れん,” and… that was the first and last time I’d see it show up in a lesson. So… what’s the point of learning it? I sent an email thinking it was a mistake, and I was swiftly replied to with the following info: “This kanji is actually rarely used in vocabulary but has been commonly used in names in the past so we considered it still worthy of being on WaniKani.” Makes sense! I suggested that info be added to the lesson so people won’t be confused like myself, but in the meantime I’ve looked up what its used in (courtesy of jisho.com) and decided to share that here!
漣 by itself is read さざなみ, but it seems to be much more commonly written as さざ波, either with the hiragana itself or 小 or 細 standing in. As expected, it just means “ripples.”
漣々 （れんれん） is one of those たる adjectives/と adverbs, and it refers to the endless flowing of tears or the rippling of water.
漣音（れんおん）is a mordent, which is like a musical thing that kinda is like when a note ripples, I guess (?), and that’s all that I could find that wasn’t a name nor a word that I couldn’t actually find a reading for (rikaikun didn’t recognize it either).
The more you know!