Neighborhood, Vicinity, Nearly, Shortly
Adverb and Noun
ちかく
今は、学校の近くに、姉とすんでいます。
I’m currently living with my sister near the school.
あのアイドル、近くで見るとあんまりかわいくないね。
Seen close up, that teen idol is not pretty at all, huh?
近くの焼き鳥屋で、一杯ひっかけていかないか。
Don’t you want to have a drink at the yakitori shop nearby?
This is the noun version of the kanji near. So it also means near, or in the neighborhood of something.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You already learned this reading when you learned 近い, so you should be able to read this word as well.