HANDWRITING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does handwriting mean? 

• HANDWRITING (noun)
  The noun HANDWRITING has 2 senses:

1. something written by hand

2. the activity of writing by hand

  Familiarity information: HANDWRITING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HANDWRITING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something written by hand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

hand; handwriting; script

Context example:

his hand was illegible

Hypernyms ("handwriting" is a kind of...):

writing (letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language)

Domain category:

handwriting (the activity of writing by hand)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "handwriting"):

shorthand; stenography; tachygraphy (a method of writing rapidly using an abbreviated symbolic system)

cursive; cursive script; longhand; running hand (rapid handwriting in which letters are set down in full and are cursively connected within words without lifting the writing implement from the paper)

calligraphy; chirography; penmanship (beautiful handwriting)

cacography; scratch; scrawl; scribble (poor handwriting)

Derivation:

handwrite (write by hand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The activity of writing by hand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

handwriting can be slow and painful for one with arthritis

Hypernyms ("handwriting" is a kind of...):

committal to writing; writing (the activity of putting something in written form)

Domain member category:

legibility; readability (a quality of writing (print or handwriting) that can be easily read)

illegibility (the quality of writing (print or handwriting) that cannot be deciphered)

hand; handwriting; script (something written by hand)

backhand; left-slanting ((of handwriting) having the letters slanting backward)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "handwriting"):

stenography (the act or art of writing in shorthand)

subscription (the act of signing your name; writing your signature (as on a document))

Derivation:

handwrite (write by hand)

 Context examples 

Of course editors were so busy that they could not afford the time and strain of reading handwriting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Now you see the point about the handwriting.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is addressed in large, bold handwriting to——

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Movement Disorder Society version of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Over the past week, have people usually had trouble reading your handwriting?

(MDS-UPDRS - Handwriting, NCI Thesaurus)

That he desired to conceal his handwriting.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have a document here in his handwriting; it is between ourselves, for I scarce know what to do about it; it is an ugly business at the best.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I eagerly hope that you will confirm this intelligence soon in your own handwriting.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It is a curious thing, remarked Holmes, that a typewriter has really quite as much individuality as a man’s handwriting.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One day, Traddles (who had just come home through the drizzling sleet from Court) took a paper out of his desk, and asked me what I thought of that handwriting?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have heard it asserted, said John Knightley, that the same sort of handwriting often prevails in a family; and where the same master teaches, it is natural enough.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)