tricky
Americanadjective
-
trickier,
comparative
-
trickiest
superlative
adjective
-
involving snags or difficulties
a tricky job
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needing careful and tactful handling
a tricky situation
-
characterized by tricks; sly; wily
a tricky dealer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of tricky
Explanation
If something is tricky, it's difficult, like a tricky puzzle. And if a person is tricky, they're sneaky, skilled, or crafty, like a tricky magician who makes it look easy to pull quarters out of your ears. A tricky riddle is extremely hard to figure out, and a tricky question on a math test is even trickier if you can't use a calculator to solve it. In their 1986 rap classic, "It's Tricky," Run-DMC claimed that "it's tricky...to rock a rhyme that's right on time" — or in other words, it's really difficult to write a clever rap lyric.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That makes success in this music tricky, and for whatever reason the immensely talented Mr. Ólafsson and the Philharmonic seemed out of sync, at least figuratively.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Other than that it is going very tricky.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
For all of Colleen Hoover’s success on the page, adapting her books to the screen has been tricky.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
That’s a tricky decision to make, because the criteria for impactful album sequencing are not at all the same for a live show.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
Having lunch with professional food tasters, of course, is a tricky proposition.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
It’s trickier than I hoped it would be.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
People do put stairlifts into basement stairwells, but the steeper and narrower space can make them trickier and possibly more expensive to install.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
The rise of streaming and the end of monoculture have made it trickier to know when it’s safe to talk about entertainment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Kittens are more likely to improve, but adults are trickier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The other part was trickier, but the waif was there to help her.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
She says shorts are "the trickiest item to get right in a professional environment" and recommends tailored, longer shorts paired with a crisp shirt or lightweight blazer for both men and women.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Perhaps the trickiest what-if scenario involves eldercare concerns.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
The deeper mystery, one I’d still like explained, is how Early found the time to learn how to mimic Douglas Sirk’s sneaky sincerity, the trickiest of directorial tones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
The trickiest part may be settling on a share price -- the cost of one piece of ownership in the company when it first hits the market.
From Barron's ● May 17, 2026
Sobered by the force of the rising tempest, I realized that I’d gotten down the trickiest ground just in the nick of time.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
