handful
/ˈhæn(d)fʊl/noun
handful is spelled H-A-N-D-F-U-L. The wrong spelling people search most is handfull: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Handful is a noun meaning “The amount that a hand will grasp or contain”. The plural of handful is handfuls or handsful.
How many letters and syllables are in handful?
| Letters | 7: H-A-N-D-F-U-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 5,957th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, handfull, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 handful?
Handful is spelled H-A-N-D-F-U-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for handful 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 handful?
Handful appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th 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 handful?
- /ˈhæn(d)fʊl/
- /ˈhæn(d)fəl/
Handful 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: En-us-handful.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of handful
- handfuls plural
- handsful plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does handful mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The amount that a hand will grasp or contain.
- 2
obsoleteA hand's breadth; four inches.
- 3
A small number, usually approximately five.
- 4
A group or number of things; a bunch.
- 5
informalSomething which can only be managed with difficulty.
Those twins are a real handful to look after.
- 6
slangA five-year prison sentence.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Handful in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | poignée , manipule |
| German | Handvoll , Handbreite |
| Portuguese | punhado, mancheia , palmo |
| Spanish | manojo, puñado, almozada, almueza, ambuesta |
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 handful come from?
From Middle English handful, hondful, from Old English handfull (“handful”), from Proto-Germanic *handufullō, *handufulliz (“handful”), from Proto-Germanic *handuz (“hand”) + *fullaz (“full”); equivalent to hand + full (“fullness, plenty”) or hand + -ful. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hondful (“handful”), West Frisian hânfol (“handful”), Dutch handvol (“handful”), German Handvoll (“handful”), Danish håndfuld (“handful”), Swedish handfull (“handful”), Icelandic handfylli (“handful”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).