wily
Americanadjective
-
wilier,
comparative
-
wiliest
superlative
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of wily
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at wile, -y 1
Explanation
Did you fall for that wily door-to-door salesman's pitch? He must be very slick and tricky to have convinced you to buy a set of new tires, considering you don't have a car. How can you remember the meaning of the adjective wily? Just think about the old Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoons. Their aptly named cartoon character, Wile E. Coyote, got his name from a clever play on words. Wile E. is supposed to be cunning, crafty, and clever — in other words, wily. Wile E. is all those things, but unfortunately he was usually bested by that pesky roadrunner anyway. Meep. Meep.
Vocabulary lists containing wily
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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List 7
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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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:
While Karadzic was the ideologue and Milosevic the wily politician, Mladic was the soldier and his metier was waging war.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
The wily, frizzy-haired Frenchman with red-framed spectacles taught Zucker everything he knows about clowning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Quantum particles, it turns out, are just as wily as Odysseus, as we have shown in an experiment published in Physical Review Letters.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
In Nolan's world, the horse - dreamt up by the wily Odysseus to trick the Trojan army and get the Greeks into Troy - doesn't have wheels.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
It had no windows and wily one door, through which you had to crawL “Your Holiness,” they shouted when they got there, kicking the heavy unmortared stones.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
He proves wilier than the hunter and retains fearsome strength and speed, despite his age.
From Slate ● Dec. 24, 2022
But the rattlesnake has another, wilier trick up its tail.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2021
As the wilier, more calculating of two friends seeking their fortune in the Old West, Orion Lee complements Magaro beautifully in “First Cow,” to the point where he almost qualifies as a lead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
I hadn’t heard any of the songs which, people said, were wilier and more mischievous than the straighter, soapier, we’re-in-love-now ballads that defined Disney movies past.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 9, 2019
“Well, there ain’t too many animals wilier or tougher than a old coon. Most people think you just chase ’em up a tree and pop ’em, but that ain’t half the story.
From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis
In Iran, the president faces some of his wiliest and most implacable opponents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
The wiliest or greediest adult children have their eye on the main prize: real estate.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025
Until the events of last Friday, Mr Rutte was seen as one of the wiliest survivors in European politics, even earning the nickname of "Teflon Mark".
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2023
Of the three, the last one, “Sacred Thread,” featuring the guitarist Julian Lage and the tabla icon Zakir Hussain, packs the wiliest punch.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2022
Now shrugging off his rags the wiliest fighter of the islands I leapt and stood on the broad door sill, his own bow in his hand.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
