(Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon.)

Why Should Writers Call Readers’ Attention to Hands?

The way people take care of them is a partial reflection of personality and lifestyle. Hands should suit your characters.

• Manicured nails might signal affluence or vanity.
• Cracked hands could be an indicator of a blue-collar worker or a surgeon who scrubs in several times daily. Plot twist: Maybe the character is a maintenance man who pretends he’s a surgeon.
• Large spots and blotches will appear on aging skin.
• Muscular hands could be a sign of someone who performs manual labor or participates in weightlifting.
• Give a woman muscular hands, and readers might see an aggressive Type A personality.
• Chewed fingernails might be the result of nervousness or insecurity. Perhaps a firefighter who’s a closet arsonist?

Don’t Overdo, Though

If something about a character’s hands is important to reveal occupation, personality, or circumstances, take advantage of it. However, avoid lengthy descriptions. Readers won’t remember that your protagonist is wearing a beige sweater with tan slacks, brown leather shoes, opal earrings, and an engagement ring.

Ah, an engagement ring. That could be important. Place it on the finger of an old lady with age-spotted hands, who grips her cane as she hobbles toward a bridal shop, and you create an intriguing scenario.

Don’t bore your readers. Give them only what they need to drive your story.

Fingernails

Fingernails are frequently the first thing people notice about hands.

• A protagonist might wear vibrant colors or pastel pinks. Nails could be uncolored or black. The choice of color often tells more about a character than several sentences of backstory.
• A bride could flourish nails painted with blossoms that match her bouquet.
• Males, especially younger males, wear nail polish nowadays. A Goth might choose black polish that matches his hair and clothing.

Shape

How are your character’s nails shaped? Would any of the following apply?

A to S
almond, angular, arched, arrowhead, ballerina, blunt, concave, convex, curved, edge, fan-shaped, flared, flat, lipstick-shaped, mountain-peak, narros, oval, rounded, spoon-shaped, square, squared-oval (sqoval), stiletto

Nouns

You could refer to nails as:

B to W
barbs, bayonets, blades, claws, cutlasses, daggers, fishhooks, forceps, grapnels, hooks, lances, meat hooks, needles, nippers, pincers, quills, spikes, spines, stabbers, talons, tentacles, witch hooks

Or

• If your character is an evil assassin, you might want to describe his fingernails as daggers or stabbers.
• A jealous ex-girlfriend might have witch hooks or tentacles.
• Do a doctor’s nails break through rubber gloves in the middle of surgery? Lances or forceps could fit the situation.

Adjectives to Describe Fingernails

Make sure the nails match the hands. Would you want delicate nails on sinewy meat hooks?

A to M
acrylic, artificial, bitten, broken, bloody, brittle, buffed, cracked, chewed, clawed, clean, crusty, delicate, dirty, false, feline, fissured, fragile, gilt, glossy, grimy, grubby, hard, immaculate, ingrown, jagged, lacquered, long, manicured, multicolored

P to Y
painted, pale, plastic, pointed, polished, ragged, ridged, rimmed, rounded, scrubbed, shaped, shapely, sharp, shiny, short, smooth, soft, splintered, split, stained, stiletto, thin, tiny, torn, tough, trimmed, unclipped, unpainted, varnished, yellow

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs

Hands gesture during conversations, form fists when a person is angry, massage when they console. Do any of these verbs match your characters?

B to O
brush (against), caress, claw (at), clench, close, clutch, crochet, cup, curl, drop, entwine, extend, fiddle with, finger, flap, flex, fold, form fists, fumble, furl, gesticulate, gesture, grab, grasp, grip, hold, knead, knit, knuckle, iron, jab (at), lace, leaf, lock, loosen, massage, open

P to W
paint, palm, pare, peel, place, play, point (at, toward), poke, prod, pray, press, pull, punch, put, raise, rest, rub, rummage, salute, scour, scrape, scratch, scrub, shake, shove, sign (sign language), slap, slick, slide, smear, smooth, stretch, strike, stroke, swab, swipe, tag, tap, tat, tear, tense, tighten, touch, tug, twine, unfurl, unlock, wash, wave, weave, wipe

Props

Well-placed props add substance.

• A string tied around the finger could show a senior with memory problems. Or a husband trying to remember items on a grocery list.
• A heart-rate monitor or fitness band would be appropriate for a jogger. Or someone learning to control heart rate and pulse in order to beat a lie detector.
• Sugar- or flour-coated hands could be clues that a protagonist is a baker. Or a serial killer with a fetish.

B to M
bandage, bracelet, brass knuckles, carpal-tunnel brace, class ring, driving gloves, elastic on the wrist, engagement ring, evening gloves, finger cot, finger splint, fishnet gloves, fitness band, flour, friendship ring, garden gloves, gauntlets, hand cream, hand sanitizer, heart-rate monitor, lint, Medic Alert bracelet, mittens, mole

O to W
opera gloves, paint, pedometer, pen, phone, piercings, prosthesis, rowing gloves, scar, sailing gloves, semicolon on wrist, splint, string tied around a finger, sugar, tape on wrist, tensor bandage, tickets, tissues, wart, watch, wedding ring, wrist brace, wrist exerciser, wrist pager, wristband

Wrists

Wrists, usually ignored by writers, also tell a story. They could be:

B to W
bandaged, bony, broken, delicate, flexible, fractured, limp, slender, sore, sprained, strong, swollen, thick, thin, tiny, weak

Knuckles

If someone’s hands are balled into fists, knuckles might be the only body part another character notices. You could describe them as:

A to S
abraded, bare, battered, bloody, bony, bruised, enlarged, hard, injured, iron, knobby, knotty, large, piggish, prominent, purple, skinned, stiff

Nouns

Use hands too often, and the word will annoy readers. English offers a multitude of options. Analyze what the hands are doing, and then assign a noun that suits them.  In addition to the following, check the Verbs and Phrasal Verbs section for words you could convert into nouns.

B to W
boo-boo soothers, bruisers, bunglers, clutchers, dukes, feelers, fever busters, fists, grabbers, ham hocks, hams, healers, killers, meat hooks, mitts, muffs, painkillers, paws, pokers, prestidigitators, punishers, scratchers, shadow puppeteers, slappers, spankers, stranglers, tarantulas, teasers, titillators, tranquilizers, vises, whackers

Scent

Hands, like hair, absorb scent from their environment. See the Scent section of 400+ Words to Describe Hair for ideas.

More Adjectives

Many of the following adjectives could describe hands, fingers, wrists, or nails.

See also 300+ Words to Describe Skin.

A to C
aged, age-mottled, age-spotted, alabaster, ambidextrous, arthritic, baby-soft, big-knuckled, bisque, blistered, bloody, blue-veined, bony, brown, bumpy, burnt, busy, calloused, capable, chubby, clammy, claw-like, cold, competent, cool, cracked, creased, crinkled, crippled

D to F
dainty, dappled, deft, delicate, dimpled, discolored, downy, eager, empty, expert, fat, feeble, feminine, firm, flaccid, flawless, fleshless, folded, fragrant, frostbitten, frozen, full, furrowed

G to P
gnarled, gooey, grained, greasy, grimy, grubby, hairy, hot, huge, icy, idle, knotted, leathery, limp, liver-spotted, masculine, milky, moist, mottled, nervous, pale, palsied, paper-thin, parchment, patchy, peeling, perfumed, petal-soft, petite, pink, plump, porcelain, powerful, proficient, puffy

Q to S
quick, quivering, rash-covered, raw, red, rough, rugged, scabby, scabrous, scaled, scarred, scrawny, sensitive, shaky, silky, sinewy, skilled, slender, slimy, slippery, smooth, soft, speckled, spider-veined, steady, sticky, swarthy, sweaty

T to Y
tattooed, thin, tiny, transparent, tremulous, twisted, unsteady, veined, velvety, warm, warty, waxen, weak, weathered, wet, white, withered, wizened, worn, wrinkled, youthful