clever

clever

adjective

Definition of CLEVER

1

showing a noteworthy use of the imagination and creativity especially in inventing <an inventor who was constantly coming up with clever devices for doing everyday chores>

Synonyms artful, creative, imaginative, ingenious, innovative, inventive

Related Words adventurous, fresh, groundbreaking, novel, original, visionary; cleverish, gadgety, gimmicky; convenient, handy, neat, nifty, practical, useful; complex, sophisticated; adroit, deft, dexterous (also dextrous), expert, handsome, tricky; brainy, intelligent, sharp, smart

Near Antonyms dull, pedantic, pedestrian, stodgy; assembly-line, canned, cookie-cutter, derivative, hackneyed, unoriginal; impractical, useless

Antonyms uncreative, unimaginative

2

having or showing quickness of mind <a clever student figured out a trick to do the assignment faster>

Synonyms alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, exceptional, fast, hyperintelligent, keen, nimble, quick, quick-witted, sharp, sharp-witted, smart, supersmart, ultrasmart

Related Words apt, ingenious, resourceful; acute, astute, discerning, heady, insightful, knowing, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, sagacious, sapient, savvy, wise; cerebral, erudite, genial, highbrow, knowledgeable, learned, literate, scholarly, well-read; educated, informed, schooled, skilled, trained; creative, inventive, judicious, prudent, sage, sane, sapient, sensible, sound, wise; crafty, cunning, foxy, shrewd, wily; logical, rational, reasonable

Near Antonyms feebleminded, simpleminded; boobish, foolish, half-baked, idiotic (also idiotical), imbecile (or imbecilic), moronic, silly; ignorant, illiterate, lowbrow, nonintellectual, unacademic, uneducated, uninformed, unintellectual, untaught, unthinking; absurd, asinine, balmy, cockeyed, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dippy, dotty, featherheaded, fool, half-baked, harebrained, insane, kooky (also kookie), loony (also looney), lunatic, mad, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, tomfool, unwise, wacky (also whacky), zany

Antonyms airheaded, birdbrained, boneheaded, brain-dead, brainless, bubbleheaded, chuckleheaded, dense, dim, dim-witted, doltish, dopey (also dopy), dorky [slang], dull, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatuous, gormless [chiefly British], half-witted, knuckleheaded, lamebrain (or lamebrained), lunkheaded, mindless, obtuse, opaque, pinheaded, senseless, simple, slow, slow-witted, soft, softheaded, stupid, thick, thickheaded, thick-witted, unbrilliant, unintelligent, unsmart, vacuous, weak-minded, witless

3

skillful with the hands <the Shakers were clever artisans who created many ingenious and highly useful devices>

Synonyms clever, cunning, deft, handy

Related Words agile, flexible, graceful, limber, lissome (also lissom), lithe, lithesome, nimble, spry; coordinated; able, adept, capable, competent, expert, habile, masterful, masterly, proficient, qualified, skilled, skillful, sure-handed; double-jointed, loose-jointed

Near Antonyms awkward, bungling, clumsy, fumbling, gauche, gawky, graceless, klutzy, rough-hewn, stiff, stilted, uncomfortable, uneasy, ungainly, ungraceful, wooden; uncoordinated; incapable, incompetent, inept, inexpert, maladroit

Antonyms butterfingered, ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed, unhandy

4

given to or marked by mature intelligent humor <a clever joke that requires a little bit of thought on the part of the listener>

Synonyms clever, facetious, humorous, jocular, smart

Related Words cerebral, highbrow, highbrowed, intellectual; bantering, frivolous, jesting, joking, joshing, teasing; antic, comic, comical, droll, farcical, funny, hysterical, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous, riotous, risible, rollicking, screaming, sidesplitting, uproarious; amusing, diverting, entertaining; mischievous, playful, prankish; jocose, jocund, jolly, jovial, laughing, merry, mirthful, sunny; scintillating, sparkling; flip, flippant, pert, smart-aleck, smart-alecky, waggish; whimsical

Near Antonyms brainless, lowbrow, stupid, witless; corny, hackney, hackneyed, lame; humorless, unamusing, uncomic, unfunny; earnest, grave, serious, serious-minded, sober, solemn, somber (or sombre); doleful, dolorous, lachrymose, plaintive, sorry, tearful, woeful

5

having the skill and imagination to create new things <I wonder what clever person thought of the digital camera>

Synonyms clever, imaginative, ingenious, innovational, innovative, innovatory, inventive, original, originative, Promethean

Related Words gifted, inspired, talented; resourceful; fecund, fertile, fruitful, generative, germinal, productive, prolific

Near Antonyms imitative, uninspired; infertile, unproductive; talentless

Antonyms uncreative, unimaginative, uninventive, unoriginal