dexterous
/ˈdɛkstɹəs/adjective
dexterous is spelled D-E-X-T-E-R-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is dexterious: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 17 of all searches for the word. Dexterous is an adjective meaning “Skillful with one's hands”.
How many letters and syllables are in dexterous?
| Letters | 9: D-E-X-T-E-R-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 68,248th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, dexterious, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell dexterous?
Dexterous is spelled D-E-X-T-E-R-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for dexterous in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is dexterous?
Dexterous appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 68,248th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce dexterous?
- /ˈdɛkstɹəs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dexterous.wav, En-us-dextrous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dexterous
- more dexterous comparative
- most dexterous superlative
- dextrous UK
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dexterous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Skillful with one's hands.
- 2
Skillful in some specific thing.
- 3
Agile; flexible; able to move fluidly and gracefully.
- 4
archaicSkilled at argumentation; mentally skillful; quick-witted.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dexterous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | adroit, habile |
| German | behänd, geschickt, fingerfertig , gewandt, tüchtig |
| Portuguese | hábil/habilidoso (com as mãos) , hábil, habilidoso , ágil |
| Spanish | diestro , mañoso, ducho, duecho |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dexterous come from?
From Latin dexter (“right, ready”) + -ous. Displaced native Old English handcræftiġ.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).