Handwashing

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The washing of one's hands. countable, uncountable

    "The mirror comes alive with images, guiding you through the steps of handwashing: turn on the taps, lather your hands with soap, rinse your hands, turn off the taps, dry your hands."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of handwash form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
hand wash

Example

More examples

"Handwashing (include the wrists and lower arms, health officials say) and disinfecting are key to preventing the virus from spreading."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From hand + washing.

Etymology 2

From handwash + -ing.

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