Word.ws English Dictionary

both-handed

both-handed adjective: skilled or able to use either hand, with unspecified degrees of equalness; ambidextrous.

Adjective

both-handed (not comparable)

  1. Skilled or able to use either hand, with unspecified degrees of equalness; ambidextrous.
    • “I'm ambidextrous,” she replied. “Both-handed. Dad says it's rare.”2014, Sherwood Smith, Rachel Manija Brown, Stranger, →ISBN
  2. Denoting either right-handed or left-handed; either-handed.
    • [Morimori, looking for a pair of scissors in the desk] Shinzuki Morimori Shinzuki: Yes, that is right. This is asymmetric one, so it is both-handed.2006, Mamoru Kaneko, Game Theory and Mutual Misunderstanding: Scientific Dialogues in Five Acts, →ISBN, page 210
  3. For use with both hands or using both hands.
    • He stood a bit far of the gloom of the lobby, but short of the dazzle of the stairs, and he clenched his briefcase at his chest in a tense and both-handed, reptilian grip, as if whatever he had in it must be guarded at all costs.2013, Adrian Van Young, The Man Who Noticed Everything, →ISBN
  4. Involving two sides or approaches
    • The principle of being “both-handed” or “talk for talk and fight for fight” suggests the necessity to combine soft means with tough ones and to struggle while seeking cooperation.2013, Jae Ho Chung, China's Crisis Management, →ISBN

Adverb

both-handed (not comparable)

  1. With both hands
    • Then the brown-haired detective charged around the corner firing both-handed, skimming two off Stephen's vest, while Stephen himself danced one round off the detective's and they fell backward simultaneously.1998, Jeffery Deaver, The Coffin Dancer
  2. Involving two sides or approaches
    • Our second front will, in fact, comprise both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe, and we can push either right-handed, left-handed, or both-handed as our resources and circumstances permit.2010, Allan R. Millett, Williamson Murray, Military Effectiveness - Volume 3, →ISBN, page 104

Forms of both-handed

alternative formboth handed

Origin of both-handed

From both + handed.

Words formed from both-handed

Questions about both-handed

What does both-handed mean?
Both-handed means skilled or able to use either hand, with unspecified degrees of equalness; ambidextrous.
What part of speech is both-handed?
Both-handed can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near both-handed in the dictionary

  1. Both respirator
  2. Both respirators
  3. both siderism
  4. both sidesism
  5. both-and
  6. both-handed
  7. both-handedly
  8. both-handedness
  9. both-sided
  10. both-sidedness
  11. both-sideism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: both-handed (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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