Thesaurus
cunning
Synonyms and Antonyms of cunning
- a cunning, underhanded plan to win the election by preying on people's fears and prejudices
crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, insinuating, knavish, Machiavellian, oblique, serpentine, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous
backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced
circuitous, circular, roundabout
clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover
- only the most cunning cabinetmaker could have crafted such a beautifully proportioned chest of drawers
Synonym Discussion of cunning
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- a person clever with horses
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- an adroit negotiator
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- a filmmaker cunning in his use of special effects
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- an ingenious software engineer
cunning
Synonyms and Antonyms of cunning
- the cunning with which Tom Sawyer was able to get others to whitewash the fence for him
artfulness, artifice, caginess (also cageyness), canniness, craft, craftiness, cunningness, deviousness, foxiness, guile, guilefulness, slickness, slyness, sneakiness, subtleness, subtlety, wiliness
- the unmatched cunning of the scout who led them safely through the trackless wilderness
- used cunning and subterfuge to lure unwitting victims into the fraudulent scheme
equivocation, lying, mendacity, prevarication
chicane, chicanery, fraudulence, hanky-panky, jugglery, legerdemain, mountebankery, obliquity, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery, wile
falsehood, falsity, fib, untruth
hypocrisy, insincerity, sanctimoniousness, two-facedness
artfulness, caginess (also cageyness), deviousness, shrewdness
treacherousness, underhandedness, unscrupulousness
covertness, furtiveness, secrecy, shadiness, sneakiness, stealthiness
oiliness, shiftiness, slickness, slipperiness, slyness, smoothness
Synonym Discussion of cunning
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- the art of choosing the right word
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- the skill of a glassblower
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- a mystery plotted with great cunning
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- believed realism in film could be achieved only by artifice
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- the craft of a master goldsmith
Learn More about cunning
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See words that rhyme with cunning Dictionary: Definition of cunning Spanish Central: Translation of cunning Nglish: Translation of cunning for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of cunning for Arabic speakers
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