Subtlety
['sʌt(ə)ltɪ] or ['sʌtlti]
Definition
(noun.) the quality of being difficult to detect or analyze; 'you had to admire the subtlety of the distinctions he drew'.
Typist: Steven--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The quality or state of being subtle, or sly; cunning; craftiness; artfulness.
(n.) Nice discernment with delicacy of mental action; nicety of discrimination.
(n.) Something that is sly, crafty, or delusive.
Edited by Kathleen
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Craft, craftiness, cunning, artifice, astuteness, artfulness, subtleness, guile.[2]. Acuteness, acumen, keenness, shrewdness, discernment, intelligence, cleverness, sagacity.
Editor: Stanton
Examples
- The Stoic tried to win men's hearts and convictions by sheer subtlety of abstract argument and dazzling sublimity of thought and expression. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- By a mixture of boasting, subtlety, and flattery he won over the young and ambitious Tsar, Alexander I--he was just thirty years old--to an alliance. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- I was very much impressed, and not for the first time, by my guardian's subtlety. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- She framed her enquiries with Greek subtlety; she formed her conclusions with the decision and firmness peculiar to her disposition. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Public affairs govern our thinking and doing with subtlety and persistence. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Nothing else would do, nothing else would satisfy, except this coolness and subtlety of vegetation travelling into one's blood. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- His mind is lucid and flexible, and he has the faculty of taking advice quickly, of stating something he has borrowed with more ease and subtlety than the specialist from whom he got it. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Indeed--indeed--when you were a mere boy I used to see both: far more then than now--for now you are strong, and strength dispenses with subtlety. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The most crafty of her many subtleties was her feint of seeking to make the children fonder of me. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- She had further to go, a further, slow exquisite experience to reap, unthinkable subtleties of sensation to know, before she was finished. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Of the last series of subtleties, Gerald was not capable. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- That joke was lost on the foreigner--guides can not master the subtleties of the American joke. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
Editor: Pedro