Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

handwaving

/ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.04 in modern English

Syllables: hand-wav-ing
IPA: /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/

21

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

3

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Waving the hands.

adj

Pertaining to empty gesturing, with little substance behind it; vague; not supported by data.

noun

Alternative form of hand waving (“empty gesturing”).

Countable; Uncountable

verb

present participle and gerund of handwave

Example Sentences

"McClatchy goes on to try and level a damning critique, which amounts to a lot of handwaving about things we already know."
"If one looks today at the logical literature, one finds that there is a great deal of handwaving going on of the same kind as that used by Gödel in his paper. That is, informal arguments are given to show that a formalization of a certain statement is formally provable in a certain theory."

Etymology

From hand + waving.

Regional Pronunciation

British English: /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/

Usage

Inflected Forms

more handwaving (comparative) most handwaving (superlative) handwavings (plural)

Phrases

wave of the hand

Frequently Paired Words

hand-waving hand waving handwave handwaver handwavium handwavy wave of the hand

Questions

How do you pronounce handwaving?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/.
What does handwaving mean?: Waving the hands.
Where does handwaving come from?: From hand + waving.

How to pronounce handwaving

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Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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