dextrous
dextrous is the alternative spelling of dexterous.
Meaning of dexterous
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
Forms of dextrous
| comparative | more dextrous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most dextrous |
Origin of dextrous
See dexterous.
Words formed from dextrous
Words that rhyme with dextrous
Questions about dextrous
- What is dextrous the alternative spelling of?
- Dextrous is the alternative spelling of dexterous.
Words near dextrous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dextrous (page history and authors); dexterous (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dextrous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dextrous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dextrous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.