Embrace: A Word Made of Arms
To embrace is to hold someone in your arms, and to accept an idea willingly. The Latin inside it is the word for arm.
To embrace someone is to put your arms around them. That is not a metaphor buried in the history — the word is built from the Latin *bracchium*, arm, so an embrace is literally an in-arming. The second sense follows naturally: to embrace a plan is to take it in rather than hold it off.
- To hold someone in your arms. *They embraced at the gate.*
- To accept something willingly. *The company embraced remote work.*
- To include or cover. *A term embracing several conditions.*
- A hug (noun). *A long embrace.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | embrace | Embrace change. |
| Past | embraced | She embraced him. |
| -ing | embracing | Embracing the idea. |
| Noun | embrace | A warm embrace. |
| Related | bracelet | A silver bracelet. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The two leaders embraced in front of the cameras.In news writing, an embrace between officials is always symbolic.
- Small firms were quicker to embrace the technology.Embrace suggests enthusiasm, not mere adoption.
- The definition embraces both cases.The formal sense: to include.
Ways of accepting, from cool to warm
- Tolerate — put up with it
- Accept — agree to it
- Adopt — take it into use
- Welcome — be glad of it
- Embrace — take it up wholeheartedly
From Old French *embracier*, from a Latin phrase meaning to take into the arms, from *in* and *bracchium*, arm. The same *bracchium* gives us *bracelet*, a little thing for the arm, and *brace*, which supports one.
Embrace or hug?
They describe the same action, but hug is warm and everyday while embrace is more formal and more common in writing.
Can you embrace an idea?
Yes, and it is the more common use in business and journalism. It implies taking the idea up gladly, not merely agreeing to it.