tricky
Americanadjective
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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
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.
Raducanu faces tricky start - who plays who at French Open?
From BBC • May 22, 2026
It’s a tricky thing—“that terrible ‘closure’ word that nobody wants to use,” says Barbara Ayres-Wilson, the mother of Jennifer and Sarah.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
“This is tricky because it still permits some pretty harmful surveillance pricing, just through another mechanism.”
From Salon • May 18, 2026
Lockups have been a tricky topic for new stocks.
From Barron's • May 15, 2026
Of course, she meant to say “locking” rather than “baking,” but this is precisely what is so tricky about acronyms and homonyms.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
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.
