1
as in handwriting
the form or style of a particular person's writing
doctors are famous for their illegible penmanship
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2
as in calligraphy
writing done by hand
the students spend far more time honing their computer skills than they do improving their penmanship
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Recent Examples of penmanship
The boy had an army of private tutors, for Latin, Italian, French, Yiddish, Hebrew, English, ancient philosophy, history, geography, drawing, penmanship, and music.
—
Merve Emre, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
Isaiah Falls, Karri, kwn, Destin Conrad and Nippa are each pushing the sound in their own lane, building momentum through personality and penmanship.
—Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 29 Oct. 2025
His first full-length album, Illmatic, was an evolution in hip-hop lyricism, and his top-tier penmanship has powered a catalog of 17 solo albums.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 7 Oct. 2025
The company provided side-by-side comparisons of GPT-5’s penmanship versus GPT-4o for things like wedding toasts and poems.
—Alexandra Sternlicht, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for penmanship
Merve Emre, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
Isaiah Falls, Karri, kwn, Destin Conrad and Nippa are each pushing the sound in their own lane, building momentum through personality and penmanship.
—Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 29 Oct. 2025
His first full-length album, Illmatic, was an evolution in hip-hop lyricism, and his top-tier penmanship has powered a catalog of 17 solo albums.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 7 Oct. 2025
The company provided side-by-side comparisons of GPT-5’s penmanship versus GPT-4o for things like wedding toasts and poems.
—Alexandra Sternlicht, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for penmanship
Recent Examples of Synonyms for penmanship
Noun
-
The fake medical prescriptions were legible, but the handwriting looked more like the output of an iPad stylus than a pen on paper.—
Lila Shroff,
The Atlantic,
2 May 2026
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Somewhere in these stacks is a working dossier of Étienne Charavay, the handwriting expert whose analysis gave technical credibility to the prosecution in the Dreyfus Affair.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
1 May 2026
Noun
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That preparation included lessons in calligraphy, horseback riding, piano and Regency dancing.—
Emily Zemler,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Apr. 2026
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Like the Arabic language, Islamic calligraphy is read from right to left.—
Irene Gonzalez,
CBS News,
22 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Penmanship.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/penmanship. Accessed 9 May. 2026.
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