handling

1. 1.

   manual (or mechanical) carrying or moving or delivering or working with something

   Broadermanual labor

   Narrowermaterials handlingloadingunloading
2. 2.

   the action of touching with the hands (or the skillful use of the hands) or by the use of mechanical means

   Synonymsmanipulation

   Broadertouch

   Narrowerfielding
3. 3.

   the management of someone or something

   “the handling of prisoners”

   “the treatment of water sewage”

   “the right to equal treatment in the criminal justice system”

   Synonymstreatment

   Broadermanagement

   Narrowerbioremediationdealing

Other forms of handling

plural

handlings·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about handling

What does handling mean?

handling means "manual (or mechanical) carrying or moving or delivering or working with something". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in handling?

handling has 2 syllables: hand-ling. The stress falls on "hand". In IPA it is /ˈhændlɪŋ/.

What is another word for handling?

Close synonyms include manipulation, treatment. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is handling a common word?

handling is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.