How-to

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A brief informal description of how to accomplish a specific task.
  2. 2
    A book or other guide describing how to accomplish tasks in a certain field.
Adjective
  1. 1
    That gives advice or instruction on a particular topic. not-comparable

    "The Rules is a veritable compost heap of do's and (mostly) don't's for a woman—oops, girl—who wants to master the fine art of womanipulation. It's a how-to book: how to make a man desperate to marry a girl […]"

Example

More examples

"They tackle a wide variety of subjects, including political, feminist, literary, how-to, or personal (perzines)."

Etymology

From how + to.

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