Chironomy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The art of using effective hand gestures, especially (historical) in Greco-Roman contexts. rhetoric, uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    The skill of conducting music with hand gestures. uncountable, usually

Etymology

From French chironomie and directly from Latin chīronomia, from Ancient Greek χειρονομία (kheironomía, “gesturing, gesticulation”), from χειρονόμος (kheironómos, “mime, skilled gesturer”), from χειρο- (kheiro-, “hand-”) + νόμος (nómos, “controller, manager”), from νέμω (némō, “to control, to manage”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.