dexterous
/ˈdɛkstɹəs/
dexterous adjective: skillful with one's hands.
Adjective
dexterous (comparative more dexterous, superlative most dexterous)
- Skillful with one's hands.
- She is pleasingly dexterous with the chopsticks, and keeps one hand lying palm up on her lap. Pinched with just the right pressure between the sticks; funny how plump women have that delicate touch.1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 57
- Skillful in some specific thing.
- We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
- Agile; flexible; able to move fluidly and gracefully.
- Skilled at argumentation; mentally skillful; quick-witted.
- […] the study [of law] renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defense […]1775, speech by Edmund Burke
dexterous meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
dexterous in Hindi
- skillful with one's hands
- दक्ष dakṣ, दस्तकार dastakār
- skillful in some specific thing
- दक्ष dakṣ, निपुण nipuṇ, कुशल kuśal
dexterous in Urdu
- dexterous
- چاق cāq
dexterous in Telugu
- dexterous
- చంగము caṅgamu
dexterous in Malayalam
- adept, deft, adroit
- കുശലം, നിപുണം, നിപുണ, പടു, ചാതുര്യമുള്ള, വിരുതുള്ള
- ingenious, shrewd, inventive
- സാമർത്ഥ്യമുള്ള, തന്ത്രമുള്ള, കൗശലമുള്ള, കുശാഗ്രബുദ്ധിയായ, നിർമ്മാണകൗശലമുള്ള, കണ്ടുപിടുത്തത്തിൽ വിദഗ്ദ്ധനായ
More languagesFewer languages
- dexterous in Punjabi
- ਨਿਪੁੰਨ nipunn
- dexterous in Sanskrit
- चतुर catura, दाक्षिण्य dākṣiṇya
Forms of dexterous
| comparative | more dexterous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most dexterous |
| alternative UK | dextrous |
Origin of dexterous
From Latin dexter (“right, ready”) + -ous. Displaced native Old English handcræftiġ.
Words formed from dexterous
Words that rhyme with dexterous
Questions about dexterous
- What does dexterous mean?
- Dexterous means skillful with one's hands.
- What is dexterous in Hindi?
- Dexterous in Hindi is दक्ष (dakṣ), दस्तकार (dastakār), निपुण (nipuṇ). See Dexterous meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is dexterous?
- Dexterous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce dexterous?
- Dexterous is pronounced /ˈdɛkstɹəs/.
Words near dexterous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dexterous (page history and authors); چاق (Urdu) (page history and authors); చంగము (Telugu) (page history and authors); dexterous (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ਨਿਪੁੰਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); चतुर (Sanskrit) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dexterous.wav, En-us-dextrous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dexterous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dexterous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.