"handwaving" meaning in All languages combined

See handwaving on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

IPA: /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/ [UK] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-handwaving.wav Forms: more handwaving [comparative], most handwaving [superlative]
Etymology: hand + waving Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hand|waving}} hand + waving Head templates: {{en-adj}} handwaving (comparative more handwaving, superlative most handwaving)
  1. (not comparable) Waving the hands. Tags: not-comparable Translations (waving the hands): تَلْوِيح بِالْيَد (talwīḥ bi-l-yad) [masculine] (Arabic), käsiään heiluttava (Finnish), gestikulerende (Norwegian)
    Sense id: en-handwaving-en-adj--1SgT3He Disambiguation of 'waving the hands': 99 1
  2. Pertaining to empty gesturing, with little substance behind it; vague; not supported by data.
    Sense id: en-handwaving-en-adj-n77q~ZtG

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/ [UK] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-handwaving.wav Forms: handwavings [plural]
Etymology: hand + waving Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hand|waving}} hand + waving Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} handwaving (countable and uncountable, plural handwavings)
  1. (chiefly figuratively) Alternative spelling of hand waving (“empty gesturing”) Tags: alt-of, alternative, countable, figuratively, uncountable Alternative form of: hand waving (extra: empty gesturing)
    Sense id: en-handwaving-en-noun-upogIuKy Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Terms with Arabic translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with Norwegian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 7 77 13 Disambiguation of Terms with Arabic translations: 8 10 68 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 8 11 66 15 Disambiguation of Terms with Norwegian translations: 9 13 62 15

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/ [UK] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-handwaving.wav
Etymology: hand + waving Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hand|waving}} hand + waving Head templates: {{head|en|verb form}} handwaving
  1. present participle and gerund of handwave Tags: form-of, gerund, participle, present Form of: handwave Related terms: handwave, hand waving, handwavium, handwavy, wave of the hand
    Sense id: en-handwaving-en-verb-3-vzgHgW

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for handwaving meaning in All languages combined (5.4kB)

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        "2": "hand",
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      "expansion": "hand + waving",
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  "etymology_text": "hand + waving",
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      "form": "more handwaving",
      "tags": [
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      "form": "most handwaving",
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      "glosses": [
        "Waving the hands."
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      "id": "en-handwaving-en-adj--1SgT3He",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(not comparable) Waving the hands."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "talwīḥ bi-l-yad",
          "sense": "waving the hands",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "تَلْوِيح بِالْيَد"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "waving the hands",
          "word": "käsiään heiluttava"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "sense": "waving the hands",
          "word": "gestikulerende"
        }
      ]
    },
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      ],
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          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "9 13 62 15",
          "kind": "other",
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        {
          "ref": "2009 November 3, “Squid Business”, in The Economist",
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          "type": "quotation"
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        "(chiefly figuratively) Alternative spelling of hand waving (“empty gesturing”)"
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    "English countable nouns",
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    "English lemmas",
    "English non-lemma forms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "English verb forms",
    "Terms with Arabic translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with Norwegian translations"
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  "etymology_text": "hand + waving",
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    {
      "form": "more handwaving",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "most handwaving",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
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        "Waving the hands."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(not comparable) Waving the hands."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "talwīḥ bi-l-yad",
      "sense": "waving the hands",
      "tags": [
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      "word": "تَلْوِيح بِالْيَد"
    },
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "waving the hands",
      "word": "käsiään heiluttava"
    },
    {
      "code": "no",
      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "sense": "waving the hands",
      "word": "gestikulerende"
    }
  ],
  "word": "handwaving"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-06-20 using wiktextract (1b9bfc5 and 0136956). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.