Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Writing done with the hand.
  • noun The writing characteristic of a particular person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The cast or form of writing peculiar to each hand or person; chirography; penmanship.
  • noun That which is written by hand; manuscript.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The cast or form of writing peculiar to each hand or person; chirography.
  • noun That which is written by hand; manuscript.
  • noun a doom pronounced; an omen of disaster.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act or process of writing done with the hand, rather than typed or word-processed.
  • noun The characteristic writing of a particular person.
  • noun Text that was written by hand.
  • verb Present participle of handwrite.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the activity of writing by hand
  • noun something written by hand

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hand +‎ writing

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word handwriting.

Examples

  • Nature's chief masterpiece is _writing well_: very profoundly informs his readers "That what is here said has not the least regard to the _penmanship_, that is, to the fairness or badness of the handwriting," and proceeds throughout a whole page, with a panegyric on a _fine handwriting_!

    Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) Isaac Disraeli 1807

  • Adding a handwritten signature to letters or even email can add a distinguising, memorable mark to your messages — and in cases like mine, that distinct memory is, “Boy, his handwriting is awful.”

    Get Signatures that Look Handwritten at MyLiveSignature | Lifehacker Australia 2008

  • She was a nice old lady and she meant well, but as a result of this, I do everything with my left hand except writing, and my handwriting is appalling.

    8 Things About Me 2007

  • She was a nice old lady and she meant well, but as a result of this, I do everything with my left hand except writing, and my handwriting is appalling.

    Archive 2007-05-01 2007

  • Upcoming delights for you: I'm going to hopefully do a voice post (god knows on what topic but I'll think of something) and a handwritten post (to show you all how atrocious my handwriting is these days), and a filmstrip post of Prague photos.

    The One With The Death Meme kisobel 2007

  • "As more people lose writing skills and migrate to the computer, retraining people in handwriting skills could be a useful cognitive exercise."

    Handwriting Helps Brains Gwendolyn Bounds 2010

  • But Angie Pike, Zane's mom, persists, believing that handwriting is a building block to learning.

    Handwriting Helps Brains Gwendolyn Bounds 2010

  • Now for the clever part – thanks to built-in handwriting recognition software, it can then convert your handwriting into editable text – saving hours of writing time for those longhand first drafters.

    No time like the presents… « Write Anything 2009

  • The handwriting is on the wall, for the (GOP) Judy Chu is headed to Washington and many more democrats will follow.

    Democrat wins battle of the Chus 2009

  • I had a general sense that in the US, "feminine" handwriting is neater, more loopy, and in its most mockable form has little circles or hearts dotting each letter I.

    Boing Boing 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.