Word.ws English Dictionary

subtilely

subtilely is the obsolete form 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 subtilely

comparativemore subtilely
superlativemost subtilely

Origin of subtilely

From subtile + -ly.

Questions about subtilely

What is subtilely the obsolete form of?
Subtilely is the obsolete form of subtly.

Words near subtilely in the dictionary

  1. subtilase
  2. subtilases
  3. subtile
  4. subtile bodies
  5. subtile body
  6. subtilely
  7. subtileness
  8. subtiler
  9. subtilest
  10. subtiliate
  11. subtiliated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subtilely (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: “subtilely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subtilely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.