Standard Lemma guide

how-to

adj · noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

That gives advice or instruction on a particular topic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A brief informal description of how to accomplish a specific task.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A book or other guide describing how to accomplish tasks in a certain field.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kw- Proto-Indo-European *kwís Proto-Germanic *hwō Old English hū Middle English how English how English to English how-to From how + to.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Hebrew: מעשי m Literally (ma'así) — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Hebrew: “practical” — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Hungarian: tanácsadó — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Hungarian: ismertető — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Italian: come fare pl or — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Tibetan: ཁྲིད་ཀྱི (khrid kyi) — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Tibetan: སློབ་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི (slob khrid kyi) — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Tibetan: བསླབ་བྱའི (bslab bya'i) — that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
  • Dutch: zo-doe-je-dat — description of how to accomplish a task
  • Hebrew: כיצד לבצע (keytsád l'vatséa) — description of how to accomplish a task
  • Hebrew: איך לעשות (eykh la'asót) — description of how to accomplish a task
  • Hebrew: מדריך (madríkh) — description of how to accomplish a task
  • Tibetan: ལམ་སྟོན Literally (lam ston) — description of how to accomplish a task
  • Tibetan: “showing the way” — description of how to accomplish a task
  • Tibetan: སློབ་ཁྲིད — description of how to accomplish a task