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
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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:
Most of us have had colleagues who can be tricky to work with.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
"It's certainly going to be tricky for the court to thread the needle," said Sankar, between upholding the administration's position and giving the oil companies what they seek.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Writer-director Reed Van Dyk’s feature debut navigates tricky emotional waters but emerges as a trenchant examination of what forgiveness and penitence can look like, allowing no room for anything resembling a pat happy ending.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
El Niño is a complicated event, and linking individual weather events to broader climate patterns can be tricky.
From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026
It all sounds easy enough, but in practice, starting that chain reaction is an extremely tricky process.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Making current matters trickier on a global level, China is on an economic road that will lead to diminishing demand for transportation fuels, much like the U.S. experienced in the 2000s, according to Chowdhury.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Kittens are more likely to improve, but adults are trickier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Yet things could quickly get trickier in September for stocks and bonds if the cost of capital keeps rising.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
That has inevitably made things trickier for Isak, who was such a force in a counter-attacking Newcastle side.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
But, over time, I could tell he was practicing at home because he was getting better and trickier.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
But this also left Anna Handler, who becomes the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s conductor-in-residence this fall, with the trickiest conducting assignment of the summer anywhere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
One of the trickiest parts about having an estranged child is dealing with estate planning.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
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
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
