cunning
Meanings
Plural: cunnings
Noun
- shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception
- crafty artfulness (especially in deception)
- Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
- Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
- The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
- The natural wit or instincts of an animal.
- Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).
Adjective Satellite
- attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness
- "cunning kittens"
- "a cunning baby"
- marked by skill in deception
- "cunning men often pass for wise"
- showing inventiveness and skill
- "the cunning maneuvers leading to his success"
Adj
- Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
- Skillful, artful.
- Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.
- Cute, appealing.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English cunning, kunning, konnyng, alteration of earlier Middle English cunninde, kunnende, cunnand, from Old English cunnende, present participle of cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”), equivalent to con + -ing. Cognate with Scots cunnand (“cunning”), German könnend (“able to do”), Icelandic kunnandi (“cunning”). More at con, can.
Synonyms
abet, art, artful, astute, beguilement, cautelous, clever, craft, craftiness, crafty, cunning, cute, dodge, dodgy, foxiness, foxlike, foxship, foxy, frood, guile, guileful, ingenious, knavish, list, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, slyness, subtle, subtlety, tricksy, tricky, vulpine, wile, wiliness, wily
Antonyms
artlessness, bluntness, candor, honesty, innocence, naïveté, simplicity, veracity
Scrabble Score: 10
cunning is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordcunning is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
cunning is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary