Synonyms of shrewd

shrewd 1 of 2

adjective

1

as in smart

having or showing a practical cleverness or judgment

a shrewd used car dealer who knew how to make the best possible deal

shrewd investments that paid off big

Synonyms & Similar Words

• smart
• astute
• savvy
• wise
• sharp
• clever
• brilliant
• intelligent
• knowing
• hardheaded
• cunning
• veteran
• experienced
• canny
• keen
• heady
• clear-eyed
• clear-sighted
• sharp-witted
• quick
• wily
• bright
• slick
• sagacious
• sly
• subtle
• perceptive
• insightful
• artful
• perspicacious
• hard-boiled
• crafty
• devious
• cagey
• tricky
• guileful
• foxy
• resourceful
• discerning
• ingenious
• pawky
• sage
• cagy
• nimble
• percipient
• dodgy
• sapient
• brainy
• discriminative
• discriminating
• agile
• apt
• quick-witted
• calculating
• alert
• scheming
• sharp-eyed
• sharp-sighted

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• naive
• naïve
• ingenuous
• guileless
• artless
• innocent
• unknowing
• gullible
• unwise
• exploitable
• unperceptive
• dumb
• stupid
• dense
• simple
• obtuse
• foolish
• slow
• dull
• unintelligent
• thoughtless
• idiotic
• dopey
• feebleminded
• silly
• ignorant
• weak-minded
• thickheaded
• brainless
• gullable
• moronic
• brain-dead
• imbecile
• uninformed
• witless
• imbecilic
• dim-witted
• slow-witted
• softheaded
• empty-headed
• lamebrained
• gormless
• knuckleheaded
• lamebrain
• thick-witted
• half-witted
• airheaded
• dopy
• lunkheaded
• idiotical
• birdbrained

2

as in bitter

causing intense discomfort to one's skin

she pulled her coat tighter against the shrewd breeze whipping down the alley

Synonyms & Similar Words

• bitter
• sharp
• biting
• keen
• brisk
• penetrating
• stinging
• piercing
• raw
• cutting
• smarting
• snappy
• caustic
• corrosive
• invigorating
• nippy
• prickly
• needlelike
• tingling

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• gentle
• mild
• soothing
• balmy

3

as in cunning

clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means

a shrewd operator in the real estate game, she made every buyer think they were getting the deal of the century

Synonyms & Similar Words

• cunning
• cute
• subtle
• slick
• deceptive
• wily
• fraudulent
• dishonest
• sly
• treacherous
• artful
• crooked
• crafty
• devious
• cagey
• designing
• beguiling
• tricky
• scheming
• guileful
• foxy
• astute
• deceitful
• cagy
• calculating
• dodgy
• shady
• sharp
• slippery
• unscrupulous
• glib
• Machiavellian
• covert
• sneaky
• clandestine
• plotting
• oblique
• shifty
• facile
• undercover
• knavish
• underhanded
• hypocritical
• circular
• underhand
• roundabout
• insincere
• secret
• serpentine
• circuitous
• concealed
• surreptitious
• backhanded
• stealthy
• furtive
• insinuating
• smooth-tongued
• two-faced
• mealy
• double-dealing
• left-handed
• mealymouthed
• hugger-mugger

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• ingenuous
• guileless
• artless
• innocent
• obvious
• public
• plain
• simple
• honest
• sincere
• straightforward
• outspoken
• forthright
• real
• direct
• open
• candid
• frank
• unaffected
• unpretentious
• unconcealed
• natural
• unsophisticated
• unvarnished
• patent
• impressionable
• childlike
• unpretending
• unworldly
• aboveboard
• simpleminded
• plainspoken
• undesigning
• unstudied
• trusting
• trustful
• unforced

shrewdness

2 of 2

noun

as in intelligence

exceptional discernment and judgment especially in practical matters

a woman with the thick-skinned shrewdness to survive in a tough business

Synonyms & Similar Words

• intelligence
• wit
• astuteness
• acumen
• wisdom
• insight
• canniness
• intellect
• keenness
• clear-sightedness
• hardheadedness
• caginess
• knowingness
• cunning
• sagacity
• sense
• sharpness
• perceptiveness
• foxiness
• perceptivity
• cageyness
• perception
• discernment
• artfulness
• slyness
• subtlety
• sagaciousness
• guile
• reason
• sapience
• wiliness
• percipience
• deviousness
• sneakiness
• subtleness
• craftiness
• slickness
• brain(s)
• sageness
• gray matter
• artifice
• craft

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• naiveté
• naïveté
• ingenuousness
• naivete
• guilelessness
• simplicity
• artlessness
• unworldliness
• simplemindedness
• innocence
• naiveness
• unsophistication
• greenness
• simpleness
• obtuseness
• stupidity
• foolishness
• density
• slowness
• fatuity
• dumbness
• witlessness
• mindlessness
• vacuity
• oafishness
• stupidness
• senselessness
• brainlessness
• dopiness
• doltishness
• half-wittedness