What does "handwaving" mean?

Alternative form of hand waving (“empty gesturing”).

What is a synonym for "handwaving"?

Common synonyms include: abstract nonsense.

Pronounced //ˈhandweɪvɪŋ//.

//ˈhandweɪvɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Alternative form of hand waving (“empty gesturing”). alt-of, alternative, countable, figuratively, uncountable
"McClatchy goes on to try and level a damning critique, which amounts to a lot of handwaving about things we already know."

Verb

1
present participle and gerund of handwave form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1
Waving the hands. not-comparable
2
Pertaining to empty gesturing, with little substance behind it; vague; not supported by data.

"McClatchy goes on to try and level a damning critique, which amounts to a lot of handwaving about things we already know."

From hand + waving.

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