handful

American  

[hand-fool] / ˈhænd fʊl /

noun

handfuls plural

1. the quantity or amount that the hand can hold.

   a handful of coins.

2. a small amount, number, or quantity.

   a handful of men.

3. Informal. a person or thing that is as much as one can manage or control.

   The baby's tantrums made him a handful.

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handful British  

/ ˈhændfʊl /

noun

1. the amount or number that can be held in the hand

2. a small number or quantity

3. informal a person or thing difficult to manage or control

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Spelling

See -ful.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• handfuls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of handful

before 900; Middle English, Old English. See hand, -ful

Explanation

A handful is just a little of something, or the amount you can hold in your hand. It can be a literal handful, like a handful of popcorn, or it can mean just a few, like a handful of trucks. You might find yourself eating handfuls of raspberries when you're supposed to be picking them to make jam. Another meaning of handful is "just a few," as in "There are only a handful of dogs at the dog park this morning." And a third way to use this word is to mean "incredibly difficult to handle." If your mom says, "You were a handful when you were a toddler," she means you were not easy.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

handful handfuls

On Friday, Elon Musk’s space-technology company launched its megarocket for the 13th time, after a handful of delays had pushed the mission back by about a week.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

Earlier this year, a handful of West Virginia legislators pushed to add some “bumpers” to the program to safeguard public funds.

From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026

This hidden genetic diversity may help explain how a population founded by only a handful of snakes survived intense inbreeding, adapted to Guam, and expanded so dramatically.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

The U.S. doesn’t yet have any operating, but a handful of projects have broken ground.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Professor Brown and Professor Green, along with a handful of other people on the faculty who had taken a special interest in me, and then the list kind of sputtered to a stop.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

"We call it rotting out," says Fererro, now wearing a white laboratory coat as he adds handfuls of seagrass to the Calshot tank.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

Chilled sweet peas and ribbons of summer zucchini are tossed separately with olive oil, more lemon juice and handfuls of fresh herbs.

From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026

Mourners on this occasion are invited to cast Lizzie’s stones into the ocean, and handfuls of her ashes go in, too.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

After a litany of stressful events, I couldn’t handle more handfuls of hair.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025

The shivering makes me cough, everything makes me cough, and I spit out handfuls of green goo from my lungs, but then I hold my breath and plunge in my head again.

From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness