Word.ws English Dictionary

hands on

hands on is the alternative form of hands-on.

hands on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of hand on.

Meaning of hands-on

Adjective

hands-on (not comparable)

  1. Involving active participation.
    • The internship will provide hands-on training.
    Synonyms:
    at the coal face, front line, in the trenches, action-based

See all 2 meanings of hands-on

Meaning of hand on

Verb

hand on (third-person singular simple present hands on, present participle handing on, simple past and past participle handed on)

  1. To transfer (something) to someone else, especially as a replacement for oneself (such as an official office or duty); to transfer something that was originally given to oneself from someone else.
    Synonyms:
    hand off

Questions about hands on

What is hands on the alternative form of?
Hands on is the alternative form of hands-on.

Words near hands on in the dictionary

  1. hands it to someone
  2. hands of fate
  3. hands of glory
  4. hands of God
  5. hands off
  6. hands on
  7. hands out
  8. hands over
  9. hands round
  10. hands someone his hat
  11. hands someone their cards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hands on (page history and authors); hands-on (page history and authors); hand on (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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Cite this entry: “hands on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hands_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.