Word.ws English Dictionary

sharp as a tack

sharp as a tack adjective: very intelligent.

Adjective

sharp as a tack (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial, simile) Very intelligent.
    • When Mum died at ninety she was still as sharp as a tack. Everything else wore out.1999, Tina Koch et al., Still Me, Wakefield Press, page 148
    • But Ophelia was smart. Sharp as a tack. Everybody in the firm knew it.2005, David E. Talbert, Love on the Dotted Line, page 12

Synonyms of sharp as a tack

17 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Questions about sharp as a tack

What does sharp as a tack mean?
Sharp as a tack means very intelligent.
What part of speech is sharp as a tack?
Sharp as a tack is an adjective.

Words near sharp as a tack in the dictionary

  1. Sharoyan
  2. Sharoyans
  3. sharp
  4. sharp as a bowling ball
  5. sharp as a butter knife
  6. sharp as a tack
  7. sharp cedar
  8. sharp cedars
  9. sharp cookie
  10. sharp cookies
  11. Sharp County

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sharp as a tack (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sharp as a tack.ogg.

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