Word.ws English Dictionary

subtely

subtely is the obsolete spelling of subtly.

Meaning of subtly

Adverb

subtly (comparative more subtly, superlative most subtly)

  1. With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
    • Nexte cometh Arrius by ſoo muche the more wretched and madde in opynyon, by howe muche he dothe more ſubtely and craftily geue unto Chriſt the body of a man, and taketh from hym the ſowle of a man, […]1533, Erasmus of Roterdame, “The Thyrde Instruction”, in William Marshall, transl., A Playne and Godly Exposytion or Declaration of the Commune Crede (which in the Latin Tonge is Called Symbolum...

Forms of subtely

comparativemore subtely
superlativemost subtely

Origin of subtely

From subtle + -ly.

Questions about subtely

What is subtely the obsolete spelling of?
Subtely is the obsolete spelling of subtly.

Words near subtely in the dictionary

  1. subtelomere
  2. subtelomereless
  3. subtelomeres
  4. subtelomeric
  5. subtelomerically
  6. subtely
  7. subtemperate
  8. subtemplate
  9. subtemplates
  10. subtemple
  11. subtemples

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subtely (page history and authors); subtly (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: “subtely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subtely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.