Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

ham-handed

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 3.94 in modern English

Syllables: ham-hand-ed
IPA

19

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

3

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Clumsy, heavy, or inept; not delicate, light or gentle.

Example Sentences

"Some of the dishes arrived damaged after their ham-handed moving efforts."
"The result, disappointingly, is a scattershot work that is, by turns, entertaining and wearisome, energetic and hokey, delightfully evocative and cheaply sensational; dead-on in its conjuring of zeitgeist-y atmospherics, but often slow-footed and ham-handed in its orchestration of social details."

Inflected Forms

more ham-handed (comparative) most ham-handed (superlative)

Phrases

ham-handedness ham-handedly fat-fingered

Frequently Paired Words

ham-handedly ham-handedness fat-fingered

Synonyms

ham-fisted heavy-handed bumbling bungling butterfingered handless left-handed

Questions

What does ham-handed mean?: Clumsy, heavy, or inept; not delicate, light or gentle.

How to pronounce ham-handed

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “ham-handed”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “ham-handed”.
Repeat and practice — Say “ham-handed” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.