Word.ws English Dictionary

ironhanded

ironhanded is the alternative form of iron-handed.

Meaning of iron-handed

Adjective

iron-handed (comparative more iron-handed, superlative most iron-handed)

  1. (derogatory) Strict and dictatorial, exercising firm ruthless control.
    • Here I am not primarily concerned with the long-term effects of such separation, about which the advocates of iron-handed rule in Poland have always written with great glee.2010, Michael Bernhard, Henryk Szlajfer, From the Polish Underground: Selections from Krytyka, 1978-1993, →ISBN, page 89
    Synonyms:
    bossy

Forms of ironhanded

comparativemore ironhanded
superlativemost ironhanded

Origin of ironhanded

From iron + handed, from the idea of having an iron hand.

Words formed from ironhanded

Questions about ironhanded

What is ironhanded the alternative form of?
Ironhanded is the alternative form of iron-handed.

Words near ironhanded in the dictionary

  1. ironfistedness
  2. ironfounder
  3. ironfounders
  4. ironfounding
  5. Irongray
  6. ironhanded
  7. ironhandedly
  8. ironhandedness
  9. ironhead
  10. ironheads
  11. ironhearted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ironhanded (page history and authors); iron-handed (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: “ironhanded.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ironhanded. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.