adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A personal digital assistant or video game console that is small enough to be held in the hands.

Adjective

1. 1
   Held in one or both hands. not-comparable

   "He filmed the scene with a hand-held camera."

2. 2
   Small and light enough to be operated while held in one or both hands. not-comparable

   "This device is small and hand-held, perfect for travel."

Adjective

1. 1
   small and light enough to be operated while you hold it in your hands wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

handheld

Example

More examples

"Incidentally, this room doesn't have anything like an air conditioner. All it has is a hand-held paper fan."

Etymology

From hand + held.

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