All of Laptsev went to stare at the bride-to-be—she was no beauty, but everyone could see that she was clever, sophisticated …—Isaac Bashevis Singer, New Yorker, 29 Sept. 2003… the three of them may give Gray Davis, who was too clever for his own good, his comeuppance.—Garrison Keillor, Time, 25 Aug. 2003Some thought he had no redeeming value whatsoever. A sociopath. A clever manipulator …—Louise Erdrich, New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2002Those who can't write poetry, write clever letters to the editor. Those who can't write clever letters to the editor, write angry letters to the editor.—Matt Groening, Utne Reader, November/December 1987The old lady was clever enough and he thought that if she had started from any of the right premises, more might have been expected of her.—Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge, 1967
Some cats are clever enough to figure out how to operate doorknobs.
That's the cleverest idea I've heard yet!
She found a clever hiding place for the letter.
Recent Examples on the Web
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.
While some of that reputation comes from little more than clever marketing, there is real science behind other aspects of it, especially when cereal is made from whole grains or fortified with key nutrients.—Daryl Austin, USA Today, 6 Feb. 2026 The researchers used a clever technique to re-create the possible formation histories of cosmic organic material, according to Tobin Munsat, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.—Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 6 Feb. 2026 Mathematicians instead rely on a clever workaround.—Quanta Magazine, 6 Feb. 2026 Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm have come up with a clever storytelling twist to explain why Darth Vader will be standing in front of Kylo Ren’s TIE fighter when the Star Wars timeline expands in Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge to include the original trilogy of movies.—Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 5 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for clever
Word History
Etymology
Middle English cliver, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish dialect kløver alert, skillful