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as in intelligent
having or showing quickness of mind a clever student figured out a trick to do the assignment faster

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective clever differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of clever are adroit, cunning, and ingenious. While all these words mean "having or showing practical wit or skill in contriving," clever stresses physical or mental quickness, deftness, or great aptitude.

a person clever with horses

When might adroit be a better fit than clever?

The words adroit and clever can be used in similar contexts, but adroit often implies a skillful use of expedients to achieve one's purpose in spite of difficulties.

an adroit negotiator

Where would cunning be a reasonable alternative to clever?

The meanings of cunning and clever largely overlap; however, cunning implies great skill in constructing or creating.

a filmmaker cunning in his use of special effects

When is it sensible to use ingenious instead of clever?

While the synonyms ingenious and clever are close in meaning, ingenious suggests the power of inventing or discovering a new way of accomplishing something.

an ingenious software engineer

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of clever Andrew Mangiapane is a clever, low-risk and modest-upside pick-up to fill some of those minutes. Harman Dayal, New York Times, 11 July 2025 Light, clever, and just leftfield enough to feel like a proper find. Lela London, Forbes.com, 2 July 2025 Dubno’s novel sounds equally thoughtful and nasty, clever and juicy and full of great drama. Literary Hub july 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025 Apart from the focus on products, which was so clever, the modernity of his visual approach for the exhibition makes all the pieces so accurate, desirable and fresh. Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 30 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for clever
Recent Examples of Synonyms for clever
Adjective
  • Involve your team in brainstorming sessions to find innovative ways to achieve goals with limited resources.
    Shavonnah Schreiber, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
  • Sample the fruits of a burgeoning wine scene in the Finger Lakes A new crop of innovative winemakers is raising the bar in the Finger Lakes wine region, where unique grape varieties and low-intervention practices are increasingly replacing the sweeter wines long associated with the area.
    AFAR Media, AFAR Media, 14 July 2025
Adjective
  • Operation Bounce House follows Oliver Lewis, a colonist on the planet New Sonora, who leads a simple life on his family ranch, playing with his band and tending to his family's selection of intelligent agriculture bots.
    Rachel Raposas, People.com, 14 July 2025
  • These earbuds feature intelligent noise control, which removes up to twice as much background noise as previous AirPods models.
    BestReviews, Mercury News, 11 July 2025
Adjective
  • The Residence starred Uzo Aduba as quirky detective Cordelia Cupp, who uses her cunning intellect and obsessive bird-watching abilities to crack otherwise unsolvable cases.
    Andy Swift, TVLine, 2 July 2025
  • As for steps that could be taken in the nineteenth century, Lyell managed to invent a cunning way to determine the relative age of geological strata.
    Lewis Hyde, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025
Adjective
  • On July 4, your celestial ruler, Venus, entered the sparkly and witty sign of Gemini, charming your ninth house of experience and self-discovery.
    Valerie Mesa, People.com, 10 July 2025
  • No, really — with her sharp and witty books like this one and The Partly-Cloudy Patriot, Vowell does for history what Neil deGrasse Tyson does for science.
    Brian Boone, Vulture, 18 June 2025
Adjective
  • Readers raved about the inventive New Mexican cuisine and the destination’s natural beauty—sitting at 7,000 feet, Santa Fe is at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and enjoys over 300 days of sunshine per year.
    Elizabeth Cantrell, Travel + Leisure, 8 July 2025
  • Whatever happens thereafter in David and Leslie Newman’s inventive and energetic script is inevitably some thing of a letdown although — not much.
    Arthur Knight, HollywoodReporter, 7 July 2025
Adjective
  • Room 11, 10-11 a.m. San Diego International Children’s Film Festival The San Diego International Children’s Film Festival features creative, exciting, and imaginative short films from around the world—animation, live-action, and documentary—good for all ages.
    Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 July 2025
  • Thanks to a script by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon, the new Freaky plays the obvious gags in ways both surprising and imaginative.
    Kirk Honeycutt, HollywoodReporter, 12 July 2025
Adjective
  • If you’re just getting started with rebounding and want something compact and easy to use (that doesn’t cost a small fortune), here’s a smart entry point.
    Jordan Galloway, SELF, 15 July 2025
  • Instead of chasing trends, smart companies stay committed to long-term brand building and reputation management.
    Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
Adjective
  • Others saw it as a humorous, if unsettling, glimpse into how AI is increasingly embedded in corporate communications.
    Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 July 2025
  • Mister Terrific, who is not a humorous man but is very funny because of it, gets very huffy over Superman’s jibes and storms off.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 10 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Clever.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clever. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.

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