ambidextrous

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
24
Words With Friends
27
Letters
12
Pronunciation
/ˌæm.biˈdɛk.stɹəs/ (UK)
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˌæm.biˈdɛk.stɹəs/ (UK) · /ˌæm.bɪˈdɛk.stɹəs/ (US)

Definition of ambidextrous

5 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Having equal or comparable ability in both hands; in particular, able to write well with both hands.
    “Some are […]ambidextrous or right-handed on both sides; which happeneth only unto strong and athletical bodies, whose heat and spirits are able to afford an ability unto both.”
See all 5 definitions

adj

  1. Having equal or comparable ability in both hands; in particular, able to write well with both hands.
    “Some are […]ambidextrous or right-handed on both sides; which happeneth only unto strong and athletical bodies, whose heat and spirits are able to afford an ability unto both.”
  2. Equally usable by left-handed and right-handed people (as a tool or instrument).
  3. (archaic)Practising or siding with both parties.
    “All False, Shuffling, and Ambidextrous Dealings.”
  4. (humorous)Of a person, bisexual.
  5. Exceptionally skillful; adept in more than one medium, genre, style, etc.
    “Michelangelo was a very ambidextrous artist, producing sculptures and frescoes with equal ability.”
    “For years, by every possible device, we have been raising the prices of our agricultural products against the foreign buyers […] by every device known to the ambidextrous tradesman and financier. The result is that we have raised up other and unexpected competitors in the markets of the world.”
    “In a footnote, these admirers will often bemoan Agee as a Renaissance or at least ambidextrous artist in an age of specialization, a vast and turbulent ocean syphoned off through a garden hose; not just a novelist manque but also a frustrated […]”
    “He also played the piano and violin, was an ambidextrous artist, and enjoyed acting. Holidays were spent yachting or canoeing or with his brothers. By 1903, Baden-Powell's military training manual, Aids to Scouting, had become a best-seller,[…]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Medieval Latin ambidexter + -ous, the former from ambi- (“both”) + dexter (“right”), thus literally “both hands being like a right hand”. By surface analysis, ambi- (“both”) + dextrous…

See full etymology

From Medieval Latin ambidexter + -ous, the former from ambi- (“both”) + dexter (“right”), thus literally “both hands being like a right hand”. By surface analysis, ambi- (“both”) + dextrous (“skillful; agile”). The Latin word is first attested in the Vetus Latina, calquing Ancient Greek ἀμφοτεροδέξιος (amphoterodéxios) in Judges 3:15 after the Septuagint, itself translating Hebrew אִטֵּר יַד יְמִינוֹ (iṭṭēr yaḏ yəmīnō, literally “bound in his right hand”). This phrase is now generally translated as “left-handed”; the Septuagint translation is either from a variant reading or from a different interpretation.

Words you can make from ambidextrous

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9-letter words

12 words

8-letter words

71 words

7-letter words

116 words

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