cunning
/ˈkʌnɪŋ/
cunning adjective: sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
Adjective
cunning (comparative more cunning, superlative most cunning)
- Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
- They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- Skillful, artful.
- Esau was a cunning hunter.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 25:27
- a cunning workman1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 38:23
- Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.
- cunning work
- Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 29
- Cute, appealing.
- everybody gives something to the cunning little boy; his eyes are large and soft, and he wears a pointed hat, and tight breeches, and jacket1857, Barbara H. Channing, The Sisters Abroad, Or, an Italian Journey
- “I shan't mind that at all, I like the little house 'cause it's got a garden, and there's a cunning room with a three-cornered closet in it that I always wanted.[…]”1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter XV, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC
Noun
cunning (countable and uncountable, plural cunnings)
- Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
- indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 236d
- Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
- Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- 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.
- the cunning of the fox or hare
- Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).
Proper noun capitalized: Cunning
Cunning (plural Cunnings)
- A surname.
cunning meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
cunning in Hindi
- cunning, scheming
- शातिर śātir
- cunning, crafty, sly, wily, shrewd
- काँइया kā̃iyā
- cunning or sly person
- काँइया kā̃iyā
- cunning, clever, shrewd, sly
- चंट caṇṭ
cunning in Tamil
- தந்திரமாக, வஞ்சகமாக
cunning in Marathi
- cunning, wily
- कावेबाज kāvebāj
cunning in Urdu
- cunning, scheming
- شاطر śātir
- cunning
- عقلمند 'aqlmand, کوا kavvā
- cunning, smart, clever
- تیز tez
- cunning; sly
- چالاک cālāk
More languagesFewer languages
- cunning in Bengali
- ধূর্ততা, চতুরতা
- cunning in Telugu
- నేర్పరి nērpari, తరహా tarahā, కపటము kapaṭamu
- cunning in Malayalam
- കൗശലമുളള, സമർത്ഥമായ, സൂത്രശാലിയായ, വഞ്ചകമായ
- cunning in Kannada
- ಗನ್ನ, ಸಂಚಿನ, ಗುಟ್ಟಿನ, ಚೆಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಯ
- cunning in Punjabi
- ਕਾਂਟਾ kāṇṭā, ਸਪੋਲ਼ੀਆ sapoḷīā
- cunning in Gujarati
- ધૂર્ત dhūrt, જબરું jabrũ
- cunning in Sanskrit
- धूर्त dhūrta
- cunning in Tagalog
- tuso
- cunning in Arabic
- مَاكِر mākir
- cunning in Persian
- مکار makkâr, رند rend, گربز gorbez
- cunning in Thai
- เหลี่ยม lìiam
- cunning in Vietnamese
- xảo quyệt, xảo trá, láu lỉnh
Examples of cunning in a sentence
- She had a fiendish smile that hinted at a cunning plan.
- They used cunning fetches to swindle money out of the gullible.
- Not so big, mayhap, but fierce beyond measure, cunning, and gripsome o'life.
Synonyms of cunning
22 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of cunning
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more cunning |
| superlative | most cunning |
| Noun | |
| plural | cunnings |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Cunnings |
Origin of cunning
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.
From Middle English cunning, kunnyng, partially from Old English *cunning (verbal noun), from Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”); partially from Old English cunnung (“knowledge, trial, probation, experience, contact, carnal knowledge”), from cunnian (“to search into, try, test, seek for, explore, investigate, experience, have experience of, to make trial of, know”), equivalent to con + -ing.
Words formed from cunning
Phrases with cunning
Words that rhyme with cunning
Questions about cunning
- What does cunning mean?
- Cunning means sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
- What is cunning in Hindi?
- Cunning in Hindi is शातिर (śātir), काँइया (kā̃iyā), चंट (caṇṭ). See Cunning meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cunning?
- Cunning can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cunning?
- Cunning is pronounced /ˈkʌnɪŋ/.
Words near cunning in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cunning (page history and authors); Cunning (page history and authors); अक़्लमंद (Hindi) (page history and authors); cunning (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कावेबाज (Marathi) (page history and authors); تیز (Urdu) (page history and authors); cunning (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cunning (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cunning (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਕਾਂਟਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); જબરું (Gujarati) (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: “cunning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cunning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.