Word.ws English Dictionary

tricky

/ˈtɹɪk.i/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

tricky adjective: hard to deal with, complicated.

Adjective

tricky (comparative trickier, superlative trickiest)

  1. Hard to deal with, complicated.
    • They were in a tricky situation.
    • Several types of diesel locomotive have been tested on this working and as a result the probable choice will be Type 2 diesels in pairs, without bankers. The crucial factor in the selection of this method is the higher degree of adhesion obtained than with a single Type 4; on trial one of the...1964 September, “News: Fewer diesels for NER in 1965”, in Modern Railways, page 201
    Synonyms:
    catchy
  2. Adept at using deception.
    • A tricky salesman can sell anything.
    • Clever got me this far
      Then tricky got me in
      Eye on what I'm after
      I don't need another friend2003, “The Package”, performed by A Perfect Circle
  3. (colloquial, slang) Relating to or associated with a prostitution trick.
    • I don't want any of your tricky money, thank you!

tricky meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam

tricky in Tamil

தந்திரமான, தந்திரமானது

tricky in Urdu

چالاک, دغاباز, فریبی, حراف, مکار

tricky in Telugu

గమ్మత్తైన

tricky in Malayalam

a tricky or clever method or solution; artifice, contrivance
സൂത്രം sūtraṁ
More languagesFewer languages
tricky in Kannada
ಕಷ್ಟವಾದ, ಕ್ಲಿಷ್ಟವಾದ, ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಯಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ, ಕಪಟದ
tricky in Nepali
ट्रिकि

Examples of tricky in a sentence

  • To my amazement, I greased the landing despite the tricky crosswinds.
  • The articulation in this piece is tricky because it alternates between legato and staccato.
  • Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first.

All 40 example sentences with tricky

Synonyms of tricky

Forms of tricky

comparativetrickier
superlativetrickiest

Origin of tricky

From trick + -y.

Words formed from tricky

Phrases with tricky

Words that rhyme with tricky

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tricky

What does tricky mean?
Tricky means hard to deal with, complicated.
What is tricky in Tamil?
Tricky in Tamil is தந்திரமான, தந்திரமானது. See Tricky meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tricky?
Tricky is an adjective.
How do you pronounce tricky?
Tricky is pronounced /ˈtɹɪk.i/.

Words near tricky in the dictionary

  1. trickstress
  2. trickstresses
  3. tricksy
  4. tricktrack
  5. trickwork
  6. tricky
  7. Tricky Dick
  8. tricky racket
  9. tricky rackets
  10. tricky slave
  11. tricky slaves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tricky (page history and authors); tricky (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tricky (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tricky (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); സൂത്രം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); tricky (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tricky (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tricky.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-tricky.wav.

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