dexterity
Americannoun
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skill or adroitness in using the hands or body; agility.
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mental adroitness or skill; cleverness.
noun
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physical, esp manual, skill or nimbleness
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mental skill or adroitness: cleverness
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rare the characteristic of being right-handed
Other Word Forms
- nondexterity noun
Etymology
Origin of dexterity
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin dexteritās “readiness, skillfulness,” from dexter “skillful” + -itās -ity
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
No wonder, then, that the film’s genre-hopping dexterity is laced with a hint of melancholy.
From Los Angeles Times
It attacks with all the dexterity of a trained fencer, but with none of the fatigue of a swordsman.
From Literature
The role neatly utilizes Clooney’s gifts for physical comedy, verbal dexterity and conveying inner torment.
From Los Angeles Times
Railway lines, trucks, plastic products, electronic communication—all have tended both to obviate the need for manual dexterity and to chip away at people’s pride in self-sufficiency.
Forrester analyst Brian Hopkins said the falling costs of components, combined with improvements to robot dexterity and AI, was helping to make humanoid robots feasible for a variety of different settings.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.