Word.ws English Dictionary

nuanced

nuanced adjective: having nuances; possessed of multiple layers of detail, pattern, or meaning. Also the simple past and past participle of nuance.

Adjective

nuanced (comparative more nuanced, superlative most nuanced)

  1. Having nuances; possessed of multiple layers of detail, pattern, or meaning.
    • The setting sunlight played through the gently waving branches, creating subtly nuanced transitions of color and tone.
    • I would like to have heard his intonation delicately nuanced so as to carry the greatest punch. I would like to have seen the changes of expression that played across his face as he spoke.1989, R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: 1-9:1
    Antonyms:
    naive

Also used as

nuanced is also the simple past and past participle of nuance.

Examples of nuanced in a sentence

  • ...the pattern normally straightens into an almost pure latticework of identical quarries and the foliage painting becomes much more nuanced and delicate.1998, Meredith Parsons Lillich, The Queen of Sicily and Gothic Stained Glass in Mussy and Tonnerre:
  • The good news is that Disney has tried to be even more thoughtful and nuanced with its oppression metaphors this time around.2025 November 25, Caroline Siede, “Zootopia 2 is a stagnant sequel with one stellar subplot”, in AV Club:

All 17 example sentences with nuanced

Antonyms of nuanced

Forms of nuanced

comparativemore nuanced
superlativemost nuanced

Origin of nuanced

From nuance + -ed.

Words formed from nuanced

Questions about nuanced

What does nuanced mean?
Nuanced means having nuances; possessed of multiple layers of detail, pattern, or meaning.
How do you use nuanced in a sentence?
...the pattern normally straightens into an almost pure latticework of identical quarries and the foliage painting becomes much more nuanced and delicate.
What part of speech is nuanced?
Nuanced is an adjective.

Words near nuanced in the dictionary

  1. nu-male
  2. nu-males
  3. nu-metal
  4. Nuala
  5. nuance
  6. nuanced
  7. nuancedly
  8. nuanceless
  9. nuancely
  10. nuances
  11. nuancing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nuanced (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.

Last updated:

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