字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

catch, capture

On’yomi ホ
Kun’yomi と.らえる、と.らわれる、と.る、とら.える、とら.われる、つか.まえる、つか.まる

Origin

This character combines a hand radical on the left, which signals an action performed by hand, with a sound hint on the right. The sound component "甫" suggests the Chinese pronunciation "ホ" (ho), helping readers recognize how to say the character aloud. Together, the hand doing something plus the sound guide creates a character meaning to catch or capture with your hands. The hand radical appears in many action-related characters, so pairing it with this particular sound component uniquely identifies the idea of grasping or seizing something.

捕 10 strokes

Components

  • 扌 radical left
  • 甫 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 逮捕 たいほ arrest; apprehension
  • 捕る とる to catch (a wild animal, fish, insect, baseball, etc.); to capture
  • 捕獲 ほかく capture; seizure
  • 捕鯨 ほげい whaling; whale hunting
  • 捕手 ほしゅ catcher
  • 捕虜 ほりょ prisoner (of war); POW
  • 捕まる つかまる to be caught; to be arrested
  • 捕まえる つかまえる to catch; to capture

Related kanji

Same sound component 甫
Same radical

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
64
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#604 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06355