Embrace
verbTo hold someone closely in one's arms, or to accept an idea, change, or opportunity willingly and enthusiastically.
How to spell embrace
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce embrace
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does embrace mean?
- verbTo hold someone closely in one's arms, or to accept an idea, change, or opportunity willingly and enthusiastically.
- nounAn act of holding someone closely in one's arms as a gesture of affection or comfort.
Embrace in a sentence
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verb
The two friends moved to embrace at the airport arrivals gate.
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noun
She greeted her brother with a long, warm embrace on the doorstep.
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verb
The company decided to embrace the new software despite the cost.
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noun
After the difficult news, a quiet embrace said more than words could.
Where does embrace come from?
Language of origin: French
The word comes from the Old French embracer (also spelled embracier), which broke down into en- meaning 'in' and brace meaning 'the two arms', the latter coming from the Latin bracchia, the plural of bracchium 'arm'. So to embrace someone was, quite literally, to take them 'into the arms'. The Latin bracchium was itself borrowed from the Greek brakhion 'arm', which is why the same root quietly survives in words like 'bracelet', the little ornament once worn on the arm. English adopted embrace in the 1300s with its physical hugging sense, and the figurative meaning of warmly accepting an idea, cause, or opportunity grew from the same image of folding something close. The 'em-' spelling (rather than 'im-') is the predictable form the prefix takes before a 'b', which is the small detail worth remembering when writing it.
How the word is built
- em- (in, into; from Latin in-)
- brace (the two arms, from Latin bracchia, plural of bracchium 'arm')
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