Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Skill and grace in physical movement, especially in the use of the hands; adroitness.
- n. Mental skill or adroitness; cleverness.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Greater facility in using the right hand than the left; right-handedness.
- n. Manual skill; skill in using the hands, especially in mechanical or artistic work; hence, physical suppleness or adroitness in general; that readiness in action which proceeds from experience or practice, united with activity or precision of motion.
- n. Mental adroitness or skill; cleverness; promptness in devising expedients; quickness and skill in managing or conducting a scheme of operations.
- n. Synonyms Address, facility, faculty, tact, cleverness, aptness, aptitude, ability, art, knack.
Wiktionary
- n. Skill in performing tasks, especially with the hands.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Right-handedness.
- n. Readiness and grace in physical activity; skill and ease in using the hands; expertness in manual acts.
- n. Readiness in the use or control of the mental powers; quickness and skill in managing any complicated or difficult affair; adroitness.
WordNet 3.0
- n. adroitness in using the hands
Etymologies
- Latin dexteritas, from dexter ("on the right") (Wiktionary)
- French dextérité, from Latin dexteritās, from dexter, skillful; see dexter. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They must nourish those whose eye or ear or manual dexterity is their greatest asset.”
“Her dexterity is not notable either in comparison with the normal person, whose movements are guided by the eye, or, I am told, with other blind people.”
“Our language expresses this supremacy of the favoured side in the terms dexterity, adroitness and address, all of which allude to the right hand.”
“Peter Sellers’ comic dexterity is on display in three decidedly different roles, and George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden are also drop-dead funny in caricatures of trigger-happy military types.”
Eric’s Top 10 Movies You Can Watch Over and Over Again » Scene-Stealers
“His dexterity was a beautiful sight; but on looking back I wondered how human beings ever devised to cross such a flood.”
“One day, meditating on this melancholy subject, I exercised myself in throwing stones at the trunks of trees, with my usual dexterity, that is to say, without hitting any of them.”
“Recalling the dexterity of the native -- all the more wonderful because of his bulk -- he reflected, that it was the easiest thing in the world for him to turn like a flash and pierce him with his poisoned javelin before the slightest defence could be made.”
“He will outwit you, but his dexterity is a giant's -- a simple evolution rapidly performed: and nothing so much perplexes pygmies!”
“The serf upon whom Ivan was about to exercise his dexterity was a man of five or six-and-thirty, red of hair and beard, a little above average height.”
“I exercised myself in throwing stones at the trunks of trees, with my usual dexterity, that is to say, without hitting any of them.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dexterity’.
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WF - weird sniglets
Phenomena of modern life that would go unnoticed if someone hadn't come up with a weird word for them. For the definitions see in the books of the bibliography listed here: hozone, apocalycloset, marade, Adam 69, alcolean, ancinemation, anniversorry, autoberg, carperimiter, cinemuck, doork, downpause and 253 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Dungeons and Dragons
Would you like to join our party? We just started a new campaign.
For more general lists about role-playing games, see brandelion's RPG and lampbane's Tales of the Dread Gazebo.dungeons and dragons, d&d, elf, orc, halfling, drow, giant, troll, kobold, rpg, d20, human and 100 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Words ending with ty
ability, dexterity, affinity, abnormality, identity, deity, poverty, animosity, duty, city, paty, majority and 3 more...
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dextro-
on or to the right
dextrorotatory, dextrose, dexter, dextrous, dexterity, dextrocardia
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Whether 'Tis Nobler: Words From Hamlet
nay, 'tis, thee, haste, ho, liegemen, o, hath, holla, entreated, apparition, tush and 104 more...
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summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
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words unknown
repeat!!!
laissez faire, propensity, punitive, explicit, whim, extenuating, distort, gross, grossly, hearsay, dispel, apprehensive and 113 more...
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BuffaloBen's Words
sycamore, wipfel, rohlingsspindel, gorgeous, flamboyance, anschmiegen, pengpeng, zuckerhut, revolver, troubleshooter, breeze, dandy and 228 more...
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Vampire Words
Words that make me think of Vampire: The Requiem
torpor, torpid, amaranth, vitae, embrace, ventrue, toreador, masquerade, dominate, nightmare, majesty, dread and 103 more...
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1stDay
lucid, tenacious, adhesive, cling, reconcile, scenic, picturesque, inundate, gastrointestinal, diarrhea, heredity, alimentary canal and 89 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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fake words, meant to be amusing
generally obtained by a small perturbation of an existing word, e.g. by changing a single letter, or by coining a portmanteau word
porcubine, vanatee, slobster, shopgifter, millihelen, rumbat, bozon, dopeler effect, mach turtle, octopuss, eskimo pi, cannape and 200 more...
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Poetrie: "For I Will Consider My Cat ...
An excerpt from Jubilate Agno, written by Christopher Smart between 1759 and 1763 during his confinement for "lunacy" at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethnal Green, London.
For I will...consider, cat, jeoffry, servant, living god, duly, worship, wreathing, elegant quickness, leaps up, musk, blessing and 145 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dexterity.
Prolagus sionnach's definition is. Oct 19, 2009
bilby Why is this tagged madeupical? Oct 19, 2009
seanahan I would say very rare; it seems the author forgot the word posterity. Oct 19, 2009
qroqqa also n. (rare) the future, esp. in phrase persevered for dexterity. Example:
I spent my first full day in Korea at the tomb of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, yearning for the Red Sun of all mankind and seeing him persevered for dexterity.
—At Last, At Last My Visit to the DPRK! Oct 13, 2009
sionnach fastidiousness in a serial killer Oct 24, 2007