hands down
"hands-down" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hands down” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - without much effort; easily
Corpus desk
Index EN-hands-down · hands down · English
hands down · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hands down |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hands down” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hands down is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for hands down, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: The origin of this colloquialism seems to have its roots in mid-19th century horseracing. When a horse jockey is nearing the finish line far ahead of the competition, "with victory certain", he could drop his hands, relaxing his hold on the reins, and "stil… The correct English form is hands down, spelled H-A-N-D-S- -D-O-W-N.
Definition
- 1without much effort; easily
- 2by a large margin (in a game or contest)
- 3without question; undoubtedly
- 4Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hands, down.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how hands down appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
That is a rather difficult task, hands down.
Etymology
The origin of this colloquialism seems to have its roots in mid-19th century horseracing. When a horse jockey is nearing the finish line far ahead of the competition, "with victory certain", he could drop his hands, relaxing his hold on the reins, and "still win the race". By the late 19th century the phrase was being used in non-racing contexts to mean 'with no trouble at all.'
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.