Synonyms and Antonyms of subtle
1
clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means
- used subtle methods of persuasion
artful, beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, sly, tricky, wily
astute, facile, glib, sharp
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
calculating, plotting
obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed
aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, unvarnished
childlike, impressionable, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly
unforced, unstudied
trustful, trusting
2
made or done with extreme care and accuracy
- the subtle strokes of the painterʼs brush
nitpicking, quibbling
frivolous, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, negligible, petty, piddling, trifling, trivial
demanding, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicking, finicky, fussy, meticulous, particular, picky
apparent, clear, clear-cut, evident, manifest, obvious, open-and-shut, palpable, patent, perspicuous, plain, transparent, unambiguous, unequivocal, unmistakable
broad, indefinite
careless, heedless, incautious, slapdash, slipshod, sloppy
3
satisfying or pleasing because of fineness or mildness
- a subtle suggestion of the Near East in the soupʼs flavoring
choice, elegant, extraordinary, incomparable, peerless, preeminent, prime, rare, select, superior, superlative, supreme, transcendent, unsurpassed
picked, selected
fine, fragile, frail
coarse, crude, rough
common, ordinary
average, fair, indifferent, mediocre, medium, middling, run-of-the-mill, second-rate
