clever
mentally bright; having sharp or quick intelligence; able.
superficially skillful, witty, or original in character or construction; facile: It was an amusing, clever play, but of no lasting value.
showing inventiveness or originality; ingenious: His clever device was the first to solve the problem.
adroit with the hands or body; dexterous or nimble.
Older Use.
suitable; convenient; satisfactory.
in good health.
Origin of clever
1Other words for clever
Opposites for clever
Other words from clever
- clev·er·ish, adjective
- clev·er·ish·ly, adverb
- clev·er·ly, adverb
- clev·er·ness, noun
- o·ver·clev·er, adjective
- o·ver·clev·er·ly, adverb
- o·ver·clev·er·ness, noun
- un·clev·er, adjective
- un·clev·er·ly, adverb
- un·clev·er·ness, noun
Words Nearby clever
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use clever in a sentence
Often, they include several pages of straightforward cooking advice, clever and common ingredient substitutions, and measurement conversions.
The Joy of Cooking Other People’s ‘Secret Family Recipes’ | Amy McCarthy | September 11, 2020 | EaterThere are so many things to love about the Surface Duo, from the “dropped in from the future” looks and smooth feel to the clever hinges and the new split-screen app mode.
Review of the Microsoft Surface Duo folding phone: Very pretty but just how useful is it? | Aaron Pressman | September 10, 2020 | FortuneZhong’s clever marketing is also a factor in Nongfu’s success.
A blockbuster IPO briefly made a bottled water entrepreneur China’s richest man | Grady McGregor | September 8, 2020 | FortuneThe question he directed at me was my cue, and in the back of the limousine I’d spent some time thinking about clever and unexpected answers to a million different questions about Avatar, although perhaps not this particular one.
‘The Dream Architects’: Inside the making of gaming’s biggest franchises | Rachel King | September 1, 2020 | FortuneHe’s very good at finding clever ways of encoding problems as SAT problems.
Computer Scientists Attempt to Corner the Collatz Conjecture | Kevin Hartnett | August 26, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
Few of us are as clever as my Inspector Morse-loving friend.
The clever part is that the present was “re-gifted” from city and state tax revenues.
The clever crooks managed to rack up $2 million in profits over a year, Ares said.
The Insane $11 Billion Scam at Retailers’ Return Desks | M.L. Nestel | December 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe wants to show her how clever he is and, more importantly, how well the script is going, that there is hope, a future.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe small band of French critics helped shift the view of Hitchcock from a clever, popular entertainer to a Significant Artist.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd so this is why the clever performer cannot reproduce the effect of a speech of Demosthenes or Daniel Webster.
Expressive Voice Culture | Jessie Eldridge SouthwickI have taken a violent dislike to more than one clever American man merely because he trailed his voice through his nose.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonFor some time he said nothing, and then he remarked that I was very clever, but he did n't see a word of sense in what I said.
Confidence | Henry JamesIt was as if he had said: "You think yourself very clever, but do you suppose that I can't read the notes in a time-table?"
Hilda Lessways | Arnold BennettBut all men at times betray themselves, and some betrayals, if scarcely clever, are not without nobility.
Bella Donna | Robert Hichens
British Dictionary definitions for clever
/ (ˈklɛvə) /
displaying sharp intelligence or mental alertness
adroit or dexterous, esp with the hands
smart in a superficial way
British informal sly; cunning
(predicative; used with a negative) dialect healthy; fit
Origin of clever
1Derived forms of clever
- cleverish, adjective
- cleverly, adverb
- cleverness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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