To Grasp, To Perceive, To Captivate
Transitive verb and Ichidan verb
とらえる
コップの半分まで入れられた水は、人によって「半分しかない」とも「半分もある」とも捉えられます。
A glass filled halfway with water can be perceived as "half empty" or "half full," depending on the person.
日本人のクライアントの本音を捉えるのは難しい。
It's hard to grasp what Japanese clients are really thinking.
そのサーカス団は、開演してすぐに観客の心を捉えた。
Immediately after the show started, the circus troupe captivated the audience's hearts.
This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means catch so the verb version is to catch.
Try to remember the mnemonic from the kanji with this one, because this word isn't used for physically catching things, but for ideas or meanings that you are able to grasp, metaphorically speaking.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You learned this reading with the kanji, so you should be able to read it already!