dextrous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If you're dextrous, you're graceful and skilled. A dextrous magician can wave her hands around and appear to pull a rabbit out of thin air. When you're dextrous, you have a physical skill — you could be a dextrous football player or a dextrous bass guitarist. You can also describe someone as dextrous who's a quick or clever thinker: "Her jokes are hilarious because she's really verbally dextrous." You can also spell this word as dexterous, and both versions have a Latin root, dexter, "skillful."
Vocabulary lists containing dextrous
A Man Called Ove
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Paradise Lost
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Chinese firms Unitree and AgiBot aim to again wow spectators with their dextrous humanoid robots, while European start-ups including Genesis and PAL Robotics will also be on show.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
Researchers have provided new insights into how ancestral elephants developed their dextrous trunks.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 28, 2023
"At the other end of the scale, we don't allow in people with dextrous skills - these are the skills robots find hardest to do. People who work in food factories for instance."
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2023
Next came Bing, Microsoft's search engine updated with a similarly dextrous chatbot, which can answer queries where no obvious result existed online -- like what car seat to buy for a particular model vehicle.
From Reuters ● May 10, 2023
He arose and stepped into Leslie’s boat, pinioned his own with a dextrous paddle, and gave attention to comforting the princess.
From Cloudy Jewel by Hill, Grace Livingston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
