handiwork
Americannoun
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work done by hand.
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the characteristic quality of a particular doer or maker.
In all of Mozart's music we discover the handiwork of a genius.
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the result of work done by hand.
woven mats and other handiwork.
noun
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work performed or produced by hand, such as embroidery or pottery
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the result of the action or endeavours of a person or thing
Etymology
Origin of handiwork
before 1000; Middle English handiwerk, Old English handgeweorc, variant of handweorc (cognate with German Handwerk ). See hand, y-, work
Explanation
Handiwork is something that you've done, achieved, or made, especially with your own two hands. When you hold up a pair of mittens you just finished knitting, you're admiring your handiwork. You can use the noun handiwork for the result of hard work, like a tidy, weeded and mulched garden or a handmade birdhouse. You can also look at something less positive, like a messy living room scattered with books that have been pulled from the shelves, and say to your two year-old cousin, "Is this your handiwork?" This word comes from the Old English handgeweorc, from hand and geweorc, "work."
Vocabulary lists containing handiwork
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.
“If This Be Magic” is both a subtle, probing study of their handiwork and a deliciously fresh reading of Shakespeare, a writer adept at “making English do things that English doesn’t do.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
Wainwright has previously displayed his handiwork at events for charity, and discovered that blind people have loved to feel the large items next to the normal sized ones.
From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026
The task took her two months but the result was worth it when she saw the head of state step out onto the presidential balcony in her handiwork.
From Barron's • Jan. 2, 2026
May and Ward also decorated for Christmas, and we walked down West Palm to see their handiwork.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2025
Melanchthon’s introduction praised astronomy as the study of God’s handiwork, but it also went on to provide an elaborate defence of astrology.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
