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Permanent link for this word: dexterous

Aug 21, 2008

This week's theme
Words for physical characteristics used to describe people figuratively

This week's words
louche
clochard
myopic
dexterous
ambisinister

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

dexterous or dextrous

PRONUNCIATION:

(DEK-struhs, -stuhr-uhs)

MEANING:

adjective: 1. Skillful or adroit, mentally or bodily. 2. Right-handed.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin dexter (right-hand, skillful).

USAGE:

"Paul Frazier was quietly dexterous on bass, always the stealth weapon in Mr. Byrne's music."
Ann Powers; Same As He Ever Was; The New York Times, May 15, 2001.

See more usage examples of dexterous in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. -Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, biologist, author (1941-2002)

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