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PlainSpell

hand-held

/ˈhændˌhɛld/adjective, noun

hand-held is an adjective meaning “Held in one or both hands” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-A-N-D-H-E-L-D and has 2 syllables.

What does hand-held mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Held in one or both hands.

    He filmed the scene with a hand-held camera.

  2. 2

    Small and light enough to be operated while held in one or both hands.

    This device is small and hand-held, perfect for travel.

noun

  1. 1

    A personal digital assistant or video game console that is small enough to be held in the hands.

    Near-synonyms: handheld console, hand-portable

  2. 2

    A snack food that is held in the hands while eating.

    We offer sandwiches, tacos, and other hand-helds.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce hand-held?

  • /ˈhændˌhɛld/

Hand-held has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-hand-held.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of hand-held

  • hand held
  • handheld
  • hand-helds plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Words people confuse with hand-held

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

hand-held vs handheld0 B

Also written: handheld (one word or two).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Hand-held in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchportable, portatif (held in one hand)
GermanHand- (held in one hand), tragbare Videospielkonsole, tragbare Spielkonsole (personal digital assistant or video game…)

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 hand-held come from?

From hand + held.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).