Word.ws English Dictionary

clever-clever

/ˈklɛvəklɛvə/

clever-clever adjective: showily or ostentatiously clever.

Adjective

clever-clever (comparative more clever-clever, superlative most clever-clever)

  1. (derogatory) Showily or ostentatiously clever.
    • The difference between clever-clever talk and the appearance of a real awareness is desperately fine, and I do not guarantee to be right in my diagnosis every time.1994, Christmas Humphreys, Zen Comes West, Routledge, page 107
    • You used to know where you stood with musicals. There were the old traditionals with scores by Rodgers and Hammerstein; the clever-clever shows with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; and the bombastic 'supermusicals', with sub-operatic numbers.2007 July 15, Sarah Hughes, The Observer

Forms of clever-clever

comparativemore clever-clever
superlativemost clever-clever

Origin of clever-clever

Reduplication of clever.

Questions about clever-clever

What does clever-clever mean?
Clever-clever means showily or ostentatiously clever.
What part of speech is clever-clever?
Clever-clever is an adjective.
How do you pronounce clever-clever?
Clever-clever is pronounced /ˈklɛvəklɛvə/.

Words near clever-clever in the dictionary

  1. clever arse
  2. clever arses
  3. clever clogs
  4. clever dick
  5. clever dicks
  6. clever-clever
  7. clever-cloggery
  8. clever-sticks
  9. cleverality
  10. cleverclogs
  11. cleverer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clever-clever (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “clever-clever.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clever-clever. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.