King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “hold”

把
bǎ
to hold; to grasp; to hold a baby in position to help it urinate or defecate; handlebar; classifier: handful, bundle, bunch

The closest CC-CEDICT match for hold is 把 (bǎ), defined as: to hold; to grasp; to hold a baby in position to help it urinate or defecate; handlebar; classifier: handful, bundle, bunch; classifier for things with handles; (used to put the object before the verb: 把 (bǎ) + {noun} + {verb}).

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

把 bǎ
to grasp, to hold; to guard, to take; handle
radical 64 ⼿ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “hold”

WordPinyinMeaning
举行 (舉行)jǔ xíngto hold (a meeting, ceremony etc)
拿náto hold; to seize
抱bàoto hold; to carry (in one's arms)
持chíto hold; to grasp
持有chí yǒuto hold (passport, views etc)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 把.

WordPinyinMeaning
把握bǎ wòto grasp (also fig.); to seize
把戏 (把戲)bǎ xìacrobatics; jugglery; trick; ploy
把手bǎ shǒuto shake hands
把持bǎ chíto control; to dominate
把头 (把頭)bǎ tóulabor contractor; gangmaster

See also: Japanese symbol for “hold”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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