how do you do
how do you do phrase: 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).
Phrase
how do you do?
- 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
- "How do you do?" began Pollyanna politely. "I'm from Miss Polly Harrington, and I'd like to see Mrs. Snow, please."1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC
Noun
how do you do (plural how do you dos)
- A difficult situation
- Well, this is a fine how do you do isn't it, Gromit?1993, Nick Park, Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers
- On the winding road to Petropolis, they did not speak, not about modernism or the construction of houses or antique bird jails or fine how-do-you-dos.2010, Michael Sledge, The More I Owe You: A Novel, Counterpoint Press, →ISBN, page 78
how do you do meaning in Tagalog, Arabic and Persian
how do you do in Tagalog
- Phrase: how do you do
- kumusta
how do you do in Arabic
- Phrase: how do you do
- تَشَرَّفْنَا tašarrafnā
how do you do in Persian
- Phrase: how do you do
- از آشنایی شما خوشوقتم az âšenâyi-ye šomâ xošvaqtam
Forms of how do you do
| Phrase | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | how-do-you-do |
| alternative form | how-d'ye-do |
| alternative form | how-de-do |
| Noun | |
| plural | how do you dos |
Questions about how do you do
- What does how do you do mean?
- How do you do means 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).
- What is how do you do in Tagalog?
- How do you do in Tagalog is kumusta. See How do you do meaning in Tagalog.
- What part of speech is how do you do?
- How do you do can be a phrase or a noun.
Words near how do you do in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-how do you do.ogg.
Cite this entry: “how do you do.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/how_do_you_do. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.