---
title: "How to pronounce \"handwave\" in English | SayItVid"
description: "Learn how to say \"handwave\" correctly. Watch real-life video examples and master your English pronunciation with SayItVid."
image: "https://img.youtube.com/vi/U1L0co41-IY/hqdefault.jpg"
url: "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave"
---


# How to pronounce "handwave" in English

## Pronunciation & Phonetics

- **IPA**: `/hændwɪv/`
- **Syllable Breakdown**: **han·dwave**

## Meaning & Usage

### NOUN
- The wave of a hand.
  - *Example*: "The leader, an upright, broad-shouldered old man, with snow-white hair, half halts his horse with a handwave of salutation, as he reaches the Imperial Crown Prince, then gallops on with the latter hanging close on his flank."
- A glib statement or explanation that glosses over important details.
  - *Example*: "In this glib handwave by Friedman, the real results are determined independently of money and financing phenomena; given the way monetarists set up the analysis, the rate of growth of money can only affect the behavior of the price level."

### VERB
- To explain something superficially, skipping over important details, perhaps appealing to intuition instead.
  - *Example*: "Some readers may wish to handwave this restriction away, thinking of #92;tfrac#123;#92;partial#125;#123;#92;partial#92;rho#125; as a differentiable vector field on #92;mathbb#123;R#125;² that behaves badly at the origin; this approach will suffice for the purposes of this book."

### Example Sentences
- "The leader, an upright, broad-shouldered old man, with snow-white hair, half halts his horse with a handwave of salutation, as he reaches the Imperial Crown Prince, then gallops on with the latter hanging close on his flank."
- "In this glib handwave by Friedman, the real results are determined independently of money and financing phenomena; given the way monetarists set up the analysis, the rate of growth of money can only affect the behavior of the price level."
- "handwave a building. I want to circle back to architecture and do like a fully massive facade. Oh, that sounds amazing."

## Real-Life Native Speaker Examples (6 Video Clips)

Listen to native speakers pronounce "handwave" in real conversation:

### Example 1
*Accent: AUS*
> "in the industry and on the user that's meant to last. It's still my dream to handwave a building. I want to circle back to architecture and do like a fully massive facade. Oh, that sounds amazing. Yes. Heat. Heat."
- **Watch at 24:50**: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1L0co41-IY&t=1490s)

### Example 2
*Accent: US*
> "I just kind of handwaved it a little bit in the last video."
- **Watch at 4:02**: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfR36PMWegg&t=242s)

### Example 3
> "the majority of the kids that have these kinds of problems will say yeah I didn't take I you know I don't really know why I was mostly distracted doing this other kind of stuff they they kind of handwave more than anything else now there's a a small um chunk of kids that have what you might call chaotic social environments where you know like I didn't take the pill because I didn't know where it was because we were busy moving from one apartment to another or"
- **Watch at 19:29**: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21ilSAobZ-E&t=1169s)

### Example 4
*Accent: US*
> "big um and then they handwave and try to explain why the world doesn't match their perfect model. What we see here in looking at web"
- **Watch at 60:48**: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6l5QGuHqOY&t=3648s)

### Example 5
*Accent: US*
> "personal interests your um references and so on and so the question is you know maybe we can handwave a little bit and call that lens um you know your we"
- **Watch at 48:52**: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLpvgt_O2Z0&t=2932s)

### Example 6
*Accent: US*
> "time uh and we'll hit done and here you go now what you can't see here unfortunately but what I can handwave and tell you and it's true um is that"
- **Watch at 45:00**: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUrMI9ZGxQ8&t=2700s)


## How to Pronounce "handwave"

- **Syllables**: han · dwave
- **IPA**: `/hændwɪv/`
- **Listen for**: the stressed syllable in the clips above — notice how surrounding sounds blend in natural speech.

## Related Words

### Word Forms
[handwaves](https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwaves), [handwaved](https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwaved), [handwaving](https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwaving), [handwaver](https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwaver)


## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do you pronounce “handwave”?
“handwave” is pronounced /hændwɪv/ (han · dwave). Listen to the native-speaker clips above to hear it in real conversation.

### How many syllables are in “handwave”?
“handwave” has 2 syllables: han · dwave.

### What does “handwave” mean?
The wave of a hand.

### How can I hear “handwave” used in real sentences?
This page has 6 real-world video examples of “handwave” with synchronized subtitles. Use Previous / Next (or ← / → keys) to hear each one at the exact moment it is spoken.


```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "WebPage",
      "@id": "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave#webpage",
      "url": "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave",
      "name": "How to pronounce \"handwave\" in English | SayItVid",
      "description": "Authentic native video pronunciation clips, phonetic IPA transcriptions, and subtitles for the English word \"handwave\".",
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@type": "WebSite",
        "@id": "https://sayitvid.com/#website",
        "name": "SayItVid",
        "url": "https://sayitvid.com"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "DefinedTerm",
      "@id": "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave#term",
      "name": "handwave",
      "inDefinedTermSet": {
        "@type": "DefinedTermSet",
        "name": "SayItVid English Pronunciation Dictionary",
        "url": "https://sayitvid.com/browse"
      },
      "description": "The wave of a hand.",
      "pronunciationPhonetic": "/hændwɪv/"
    },
    {
      "@type": "LearningResource",
      "@id": "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave#learning-resource",
      "name": "Pronunciation Guide for \"handwave\"",
      "description": "Pronunciation practice and listening training for \"handwave\".",
      "educationalUse": "Pronunciation and Listening Practice",
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "learningResourceType": "Video Clip"
    },
    {
      "@type": "VideoObject",
      "@id": "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave#video-U1L0co41-IY",
      "name": "How to pronounce \"handwave\" in English - Native Speaker Video Example",
      "description": "Watch a native English speaker pronounce \"handwave\" in real conversation: \"in the industry and on the user that's meant to last. It's still my dream to handwave a building. I want to circle back to architecture and do like a fully massive facade. Oh, that sounds amazing. Yes. Heat. Heat.\"",
      "thumbnailUrl": [
        "https://img.youtube.com/vi/U1L0co41-IY/maxresdefault.jpg",
        "https://img.youtube.com/vi/U1L0co41-IY/hqdefault.jpg"
      ],
      "uploadDate": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
      "contentUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1L0co41-IY&t=1490s",
      "embedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/U1L0co41-IY?start=1490",
      "transcript": "in the industry and on the user that's meant to last. It's still my dream to handwave a building. I want to circle back to architecture and do like a fully massive facade. Oh, that sounds amazing. Yes. Heat. Heat.",
      "hasPart": {
        "@type": "Clip",
        "name": "Pronunciation of \"handwave\"",
        "startOffset": 1490,
        "endOffset": 1517,
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1L0co41-IY&t=1490s"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "FAQPage",
      "@id": "https://sayitvid.com/pronounce/handwave#faq",
      "mainEntity": [
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "How do you pronounce “handwave”?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "“handwave” is pronounced /hændwɪv/ (han · dwave). Listen to the native-speaker clips above to hear it in real conversation."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "How many syllables are in “handwave”?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "“handwave” has 2 syllables: han · dwave."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "What does “handwave” mean?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "The wave of a hand."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "How can I hear “handwave” used in real sentences?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "This page has 6 real-world video examples of “handwave” with synchronized subtitles. Use Previous / Next (or ← / → keys) to hear each one at the exact moment it is spoken."
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```
