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This term, to me, is ambiguous. A hand puppet can be any type of puppet - from rod puppets to mouth puppets. All types of puppets require some form of 'hand' to operate them. And hand puppets are not puppets that look like hands... so what does it really refer to? 

In fact, when average people (ie. not puppeteers) are referring to hand puppets, they are more often than not meaning glove puppets. Glove puppets are of course, a simple puppet that you can wear on your hand, and are made most famous by the image of Punch and Judy. So naturally, the term 'hand puppet' is easily associated with the glove puppet type. 

Of course, you can have other types of glove puppets than Punch and Judy; sock puppets are a great example of hand puppets too. 

Read more about glove puppets. Read more about sock puppets.

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