Meaning & readings
wrap, pack up, cover, conceal
On’yomi ホウ
Kun’yomi つつ.む、くる.む
Nanori お、かね
Origin
The character 包 appears to show a wrapping or enclosing action. The curved component on the left (勹) looks like arms or a container that curves around something, while the component on the right (己) represents the thing being wrapped or enclosed. Together, they create the image of something being held or covered by curved arms, which naturally led to meanings like wrap, pack up, and cover. The visual idea of one thing surrounding or containing another directly expresses the concept of wrapping something up.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 勹
- 己
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 20
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #954 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05305