Word.ws English Dictionary

five finger exercise

five finger exercise is the alternative spelling of five-finger exercise.

Meaning of five-finger exercise

Noun

five-finger exercise (plural five-finger exercises)

  1. A musical composition for the piano, designed to require the use of all the fingers of the hand for the purpose of skill development.
    • It was the singular room which Carlyle had constructed in the hopes that he could shut out all the noises of the universe, the crowing of cocks, and the jingling of a young lady's five-finger exercise in particular.1899, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 20, in A Duet
  2. (broadly, figuratively) An activity which is undertaken for the purpose of skill development.
    • Batman Begins, the 2005 film that launched Nolan's series, was a mere five-finger exercise. This is the full symphony.2008 July 9, Richard Corliss, “Batman Is Back—TIME Reviews The Dark Knight”, in Time

Forms of five finger exercise

pluralfive finger exercises

Questions about five finger exercise

What is five finger exercise the alternative spelling of?
Five finger exercise is the alternative spelling of five-finger exercise.

Words near five finger exercise in the dictionary

  1. Five Eyes
  2. five figures
  3. five finger
  4. five finger discount
  5. five finger discounts
  6. five finger exercise
  7. five finger exercises
  8. five fingers
  9. Five Forks
  10. Five Houses
  11. five hundred

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: five finger exercise (page history and authors); five-finger exercise (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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