How to use tricky in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective

Tricky means hard to deal with, complicated. Example: “They were in a tricky situation.”

Examples of tricky by meaning

adjectiveHard to deal with, complicated.

They were in a tricky situation.
"The trickiest we ever get," he continued, "is in the short-answer questions like, 'Why do you want to come to the University of Chicago?' or, 'What books have you read?'1995 December 27, William H. Honan, “Personal Essay Questions: Turning Torture Into Fun”, in The New York Times, archived from the original...
That will prove a trickier test, the management having pinpointed Oleh Blokhin's side as "one of the favourites in the group", though they will confront an England team buoyed by this battering.2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian, archived from...

adjectiveAdept at using deception.

A tricky salesman can sell anything.

adjectiveRelating to or associated with a prostitution trick.

I don't want any of your tricky money, thank you!

More sentences with tricky

To my amazement, I greased the landing despite the tricky crosswinds.From the entry grease
The articulation in this piece is tricky because it alternates between legato and staccato.From the entry articulation
Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first.From the entry muslin
She waved to us and lost her balance; riding a bicycle one-handed is tricky.From the entry one-handed
Here in Canada very few people gather charcoal burners for food, as it is tricky to identify.From the entry charcoal burner
With great skill, she navigated through the tricky passage.From the entry skill
It can be tricky to land a helicopter.From the entry land
We're learning about division, and the sums are tricky.From the entry sum
That interviewer is tricky; he asks loaded questions.From the entry loaded
I fluffed up on that tricky ski jump.From the entry fluff up
Her standup act involves a lot of punching up. It's possible to punch down in standup, a little bit here and there, but it's tricky to get right.From the entry punch up
This can be tricky in an industry where individual item picking dominates the process.2025 January 1, Debra Ellis, “Wireless picking now or later?”, in Multichannel Merchant, United States, archived from the original on 05…. From the entry individual item picking
Eau de Nil (“water of the Nile”) is a tricky color to pin down precisely.2018 February 13, Katy Kelleher, “Eau de Nil, the Light-Green Color of Egypt-Obsessed Europe”, in The Paris Review. From the entry celadon
But more and more these days it's getting to be a tricky racket.2018, Nicolás Obregón, Sins As Scarlet. From the entry tricky racket
Another tricky moment for Lajovic going from 30-0 up to staring down at another break point.2017 July 6, Vicki Hodges, “'Nervous' Roger Federer cruises into third round of Wimbledon with win over Dusan Lajovic”, in Chris Evans…. From the entry mmh
Moto pants are probably the trickiest aspect of my riding getup.2016 June 24, Morgan Gales, “UglyBros Motorpool Jeans Reviewed”, in Motorcycle Cruiser Magazine. From the entry dress for the slide, not the ride
Novak Djokovic earlier had negotiated his own tricky passage through the fifth day.2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in The Guardian, archived from the…. From the entry negotiate
The grateful mark will not question the grifter's tricky misread or miscount.2011, Richard Margittay, Carnival Games: $10,000,000,000 Hoodwink Racket. From the entry misread
The flack catcher's job is to try to entangle them in their tricky game of catch questions.2011, Peter J Miele, Baptism of Fire. From the entry flack catcher
Packaging can be tricky as you need to be able to vacuum pack chips.2009, Cheryl Kimball, 55 Surefire Food-Related Businesses You Can Start for Under $5000.. From the entry vacuum pack
It'll be tricky, 'cause these sorts of gangs rarely have just one target on the go.2007 February 20, Chris Chibnall, Life on Mars, season 2, episode 2. From the entry know one's onions
It can be tricky to get the edges stuck together neatly.2002, Georgia Sargeant, Celie Fago, Livia McRee, Polymer Clay, →ISBN, page 33. From the entry stick together
It can be tricky to spot where the overbend is located.1994, Jonathan D. Solomon, William Cumpiano, Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology, page 183. From the entry overbend
Photo selection can be tricky with space limitations, Arthur, and we blew that one.1978, response to a letter to the editor, in American Motorcyclist, American Motorcyclist Association, ISSN 0277-9358, Volume 32, Number 2…. From the entry pix
After this rather tricky problem let's climb the Mount Everest of all writing problems.1958, Rudolf Flesch, “How to Write Like a Pro”, in A New Way to Better English, Garden City, N.Y.: Dolphin Books, Doubleday & Company…. From the entry Mount Everest
They tormented their venerable grandmother with their shrill uproar and tricky behaviour.1913, Lewis Spence, chapter V, in The Myths of Mexico and Peru. From the entry torment
Many companies built up pretariff inventories, and gyrating tariff rates make it tricky for retailers to set prices.2026 January 18, Simon Montlake, “The Trump economy: No recession, but no boom either”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from…. From the entry gyrate
So this test, this whole area of substantive due process, is tricky for some of the reasons you say.2025 October 16, Ross Douthat, quoting Amy Coney Barrett, “Amy Coney Barrett Is Looking Beyond the Trump Era”, in The New York Times, New…. From the entry substantive
This is a trickier one for the king.2025 October 20, Caroline Davies, “Dealing with ‘Andrew problem’ could help ease William’s accession to the throne”, in The Guardian…. From the entry optics
But it's tricky to define, he added, because people sometimes confuse it with belonging, self-esteem and social connection.2023, Gail Cornwall, “Want to Believe in Yourself? 'Mattering' Is Key”, in The New York Times. From the entry mattering
If you find yourself dating a “wokefish,” it can be a lot trickier to identify than your garden variety catfish.[2021 August 4, Molly Longman, “‘Wokefishing’ Is A Uniquely 2021, Uniquely Terrible Dating Trend”, in Refinery29, Vice media group…. From the entry wokefish
The tricky part is dressing while floating in zero gravity!2015, James Buckley Jr., Home Address, ISS. From the entry zero gravity
Candlesticking is one of the trickier methods of charting stock.2014, Sarah Graves, Wreck the Halls. From the entry candlestick
Ah, things get tricky here; Unicode is kind of a bear when you consider 'characters' because its codepoints aren't necessarily characters.2013 March 16, Shark8, “Re: Is this expected behavior or not”, in comp.lang.ada (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry zalgo
The tricky thing about cheese pulls is that you get only one or two image opportunities per pull.2012, Linda Bellingham, Jean Ann Bybee, More Food Styling for Photographers & Stylists. From the entry cheese pull

Meaning of tricky

adjective Hard to deal with, complicated.
adjective Adept at using deception.
adjective Relating to or associated with a prostitution trick.

Full definition of tricky

Questions about tricky in a sentence

How do you use tricky in a sentence?: Tricky is used as an adjective. For example: “They were in a tricky situation.”
What is a short sentence with tricky?: “A tricky salesman can sell anything.”
What does tricky mean?: Tricky means hard to deal with, complicated.

Adapted from Wiktionary: tricky (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use tricky in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/tricky. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.