phrasal verb · neutral
get a handle on
UK/ɡet ə ˈhændl ɒn/US/ɡet ə ˈhændəl ɑn/get·a·HAN·dle·on
to begin to understand something well enough to deal with it
Examples
“It took three meetings for the committee to get a handle on the budget figures.”
“Once you get a handle on the grammar, writing becomes much easier.”
“Teachers need to get a handle on students' learning styles to teach effectively.”
Band 8 sentence
“Before recommending policy changes, analysts should get a handle on long-term demographic trends that influence employment.”
Collocations
- get a handle on data
- get a handle on a problem
Word family
Common mistakes
get handle on→get a handle on
have a handle of→get a handle on
Say it for a higher band
5understand→6figure out→7+get a handle on
Synonyms
grasp
get to grips with
Easily confused
get to grips with
“Researchers must get to grips with the underlying causes of obesity.”
grasp
“She finally grasped the main idea of the lecture.”
Related words
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In get …
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