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hands

noun

Form of hand , plural of hand.

Simple meaning

Guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

handz
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhændz

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. with `in'

    Guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child

    “My fate is in your hands.”

  2. The force of workers available

  3. A surname.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (with `in') guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child

Used this way, hands is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.

Heard in a sentence
“My fate is in your hands.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Family/home

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use hands

  • “My fate is in your hands.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

shake handsshook handstwo handsshaking hands

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • handnounBase word

    The (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • handfulnounDerived noun

    A small number or amount.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • lay hands onverbCompound term

    Manage with the hands.

  • laying on of handsnounCompound term

    The application of a faith healer's hands to the patient's body.

  • shake handsverbCompound term

    Take someone's hands and shake them as a gesture of greeting or congratulation.

  • change handsverbCompound term

    Be transferred to another owner.

  • wash one's handsverbCompound term

    To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame.

  • hands downadverbCompound term

    With no difficulty.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • handheldadjectiveRelated term

    Small and light enough to be operated while you hold it in your hands.

  • handedadjectiveRelated term

    Having or involving the use of hands.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: guardianship over

custody

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.