RIGHT-HANDED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does right-handed mean? 

• RIGHT-HANDED (adjective)
  The adjective RIGHT-HANDED has 2 senses:

1. using or intended for the right hand

2. rotating to the right

  Familiarity information: RIGHT-HANDED used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIGHT-HANDED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Using or intended for the right hand

Context example:

right-handed scissors

Similar:

dextral (preferring to use right foot or hand or eye)

right; right-hand (intended for the right hand)

Also:

dextral (of or on the right)

right (being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the east when facing north)

Antonym:

ambidextrous (equally skillful with each hand)

left-handed (using or intended for the left hand)

Derivation:

right-handedness (preference for using the right hand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Rotating to the right

Synonyms:

dextrorotary; dextrorotatory; right-handed

Similar:

clockwise (in the same direction as the rotating hands of a clock)

Derivation:

right-handedness (preference for using the right hand)

 Context examples 

B-DNA is about 20 Angstrom in diameter and a right-handed double helix with a wide major groove easily accessible to proteins and narrow minor groove.

(B-DNA, NCI Thesaurus)

Tandem repeats form a right-handed superhelix (3 helixes per unit); tight repeat packing creates a cylindrical hydrophobic core throughout the structure.

(Armadillo Repeat, NCI Thesaurus)

You hold your own pipe to the lamp, and see how naturally you, being right-handed, hold the left side to the flame.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The waves were recorded from right-handed volunteers with a highly sensitive scanning technique called magnetoencephalography.

(Brains may use short rest periods to strengthen memories, National Institutes of Health)

The smaller of the two types of spiral grooves found on a right-handed DNA double helix; located between the sugar phosphate backbones of two DNA strands.

(Minor Groove, NCI Thesaurus)

A right-handed spiral conformation; the a-helix has a pitch of 5.4 A and has 3.6 amino acid residues per turn; every main chain C=O and N-H group is hydrogen-bonded to a peptide bond 4 residues away; the peptide planes are roughly parallel with the helix axis and the dipoles within the helix are aligned, i.e. all C=O groups point in the same direction and all N-H groups point the other way; side chains point outward from helix axis and are generally oriented towards its amino-terminal end.

(Alpha Helix, NCI Thesaurus)