fingerspelling

IPA: fˈɪŋgɝspˈɛɫɪŋ

The practice of representing the letters of an alphabet using just the hands to spell out words.
Any system for representing the letters of an alphabet using just the hands; a manual alphabet that is a representation of a written alphabet.
A representation of the spelling of a word using such a system.

Examples of "fingerspelling" in Sentences

I looked up startled that he was signing at me and then he made the sign for fingerspelling.
A grand mal is a "wham bam and 'no thank you' ma'am" which leaves me fingerspelling upon waking, "Where is that truck which hit me?"
I distracted myself by fingerspelling words on trucks and keeping my memory limber for numbers by doing the occasional license plate.
People were kind, friendly, and patient, but I hated to impose my blank looks, my need for painfully slow fingerspelling, my ignorance of whole swaths of essential vocabulary.
In the 1960s, linguists began to understand that far from being mere pantomime or fingerspelling, ASL is a highly evolved language with a syntax entirely different from any spoken language.3
Stokoe notation was created by William Stokoe for ASL in 1960, with Latin letters and numbers used for the shapes they have in fingerspelling, and iconic glyphs to transcribe the position, movement, and orientation of the hands.