ambidextrous
/ˌambɪˈdɛkstrəs
/- He became ambidextrous, using his left hand instead.
- Although I'm ambidextrous, there are few things I do equally well with either hand.
- The Nottingham star remarked that his ambidextrous opponent was probably not as good playing with his left hand as his right.
- The back of it sports ambidextrous safety levers.
- The ten round magazine is released with an ambidextrous lever mounted on the bottom of the trigger guard.
- It's an ambidextrous design for the most part, but it's still better suited for right handers.
Derivatives
ambidexterity
/ noun ...- Tendulkar's ambidexterity is interesting; he writes left-handed and at meals handles a spoon or fork with his left.
- The sport promotes hand-eye concentration, ambidexterity, quickness and concentration.
- Without that ambidexterity, the player is much easier to defend.
ambidextrously
/ adverb ...- The scientists noted those less used to mobile phones used one or several fingers to access the keypad and younger people used both thumbs ambidextrously.
- It worked perfectly well, but there are those of us who like to be able to shoot ambidextrously in an emergency without impediment.
- Many musical instruments are played ambidextrously.
ambidextrousness
/ noun ...- Only once have I tried to exploit my ambidextrousness for what might be called personal gain.
- Demonstrating his family's reputation for ambidextrousness, he transferred the sword to his left hand.
- Several studies have noted a higher rate of left-handedness in schizophrenic people although some scientists think this is due to ambidextrousness rather than genuine left-handedness.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from late Latin ambidexter (from Latin ambi- 'on both sides' + dexter 'right-handed') + -ous.
As anyone left-handed knows, we live in a right-handed world. The bias towards right-handedness is present in the language too. While the positive word dexterous or ‘skilful, good with the hands’ comes from the Latin for ‘right-handed’, the rather more negative sinister comes from the Latin for ‘left-handed’. And if you are ambidextrous, it is as though you have got two right hands: the word is from Latin ambi ‘both, on both sides’ and dexter ‘right, right-handed’. At one time ambidextrous could also be used to mean ‘double-dealing, trying to please both sides’, as in ‘a little, dirty, pimping, pettifogging, ambidextrous fellow’ (Laurence Sterne, 1768).