noun.
The practice of representing the letters of the alphabet using just the hands to spell out words.
noun.
Any system for representing the letters of the alphabet using just the hands.
noun.
A representation of the spelling of a word using just the hands.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun.
an alphabet of manual signs
Word Usage
"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"