Word.ws English Dictionary

how-de-do

how-de-do is the pronunciation spelling of how do you do.

Meaning of how do you do

Phrase

how do you do?

  1. (dated, formal) A greeting used upon being introduced to someone. Alternatives are how are you, pleased to meet you, and nice to meet you. (Sometimes used as a rhetorical question among familiar parties, depending on the region).
    • ‘How do you do!’ said the Minister. ‘I’m very well, indeed! how’s yourself?’1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 37

See all 2 meanings of how do you do

Forms of how-de-do

pluralhow-de-dos

Questions about how-de-do

What is how-de-do the pronunciation spelling of?
How-de-do is the pronunciation spelling of how do you do.

Words near how-de-do in the dictionary

  1. how's your hammer hanging
  2. how't
  3. how've
  4. how-d'ye-do
  5. how-d'ye-dos
  6. how-de-do
  7. how-de-dos
  8. how-do-you-do
  9. how-do-you-dos
  10. how-to
  11. how-to-vote card

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: how-de-do (page history and authors); how do you do (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: “how-de-do.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/how-de-do. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.