抱

音読おんよみ: ホウ

訓読くんよみ: だく・いだく・かかえる

画数かくすう: 8

部首ぶしゅ: 扌（てへん, “hand” radical）

Meaning

Embrace / Hug / Hold

  • 抱だく — to hold (a baby); to hug
  • 抱いだく — to embrace (physically or emotionally); to harbor (feelings, hopes)
  • 抱かかえる — to carry in one’s arms / to hold under the arm / to be burdened with
  • 抱負ほうふ — aspirations / personal ambition
  • 抱ほう擁よう — embrace; hug (formal / news-y)

抱 is physical and emotional at the same time. You can 抱く a child (literally hold), but you can also 夢を抱く — “hold a dream,” meaning to cherish an ambition or hope. 抱える leans practical: “to carry,” “to be stuck with,” “to be burdened with” (like debt, stress, problems).

Because of that nuance, 抱 shows up in both warm phrases (hugging, protecting, caring) and heavy phrases (carrying worries). Same core image: arms around something.

包

抱 = 扌 (hand) + 包 (wrap).

Picture it: a hand wrapping around something, enclosing it, not letting it go. That’s literally “to hold in your arms.” Japanese still feels that image. When you 抱く a dream, you’re not just “having” it — you’re wrapping yourself around it, protecting it, carrying it with you.

抱負
Creates

抱負ほうふ — “ambition / aspiration.” Literally, it’s the hopes you’re holding in your arms.

People talk about 新年の抱負 — “New Year’s resolutions,” the goals you promise yourself and keep close.

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