subtlety n 1: a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude; "without understanding the finer nuances you can't enjoy the humor"; "don't argue about shades of meaning" [syn: nuance, nicety, shade, subtlety, refinement] 2: the quality of being difficult to detect or analyze; "you had to admire the subtlety of the distinctions he drew" [syn: subtlety, niceness]

subtlety noun (plural -ties) Etymology: Middle English sotilte, subtilte, from Anglo-French sotilté, from Latin subtilitat-, subtilitas, from subtilis Date: 14th century 1. the quality or state of being subtle 2. something subtle

subtlety
n. (pl. -ies)
1 something subtle.
2 a fine distinction; an instance of hairsplitting.
Etymology: ME f. OF s(o)utilté f. L subtilitas -tatis (as SUBTLE)

subtlety ˈsʌtltɪ n. (pl. -ies) 1 something subtle. 2 a fine distinction; an instance of hairsplitting. [ME f. OF s(o)utilt÷ f. L subtilitas -tatis (as SUBTLE)]

Subtlety \Sub"tle*ty\, n.; pl. Subtleties. [OE. sotelte, sutilte, OF. sotillete, L. subtilitas. See Subtle, and cf. Subtility.] 1. The quality or state of being subtle, or sly; cunning; craftiness; artfulness. The fox which lives by subtlety. --Shak. 2. Nice discernment with delicacy of mental action; nicety of discrimination. 3. Something that is sly, crafty, or delusive. Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. --Shak.

subtlety n. 1. Craft, craftiness, cunning, artifice, astuteness, artfulness, subtleness, guile. 2. Acuteness, acumen, keenness, shrewdness, discernment, intelligence, cleverness, sagacity.

subtlety ˈsʌtltɪ n. 1 refinement, nicety, delicacy, exquisiteness, intricacy, fineness, acuteness, elegance, sophistication: The subtlety of the detail in this work is quite unique. One must admire the subtlety of expression in her writing. 2 treachery, guile, insidiousness, casuistry, cunning, artfulness, craftiness, deviousness, slyness, deceptiveness: The subtlety of her deception was revealed only after the war.

240 Moby Thesaurus words for "subtlety": Italian hand, absoluteness, accuracy, acquired taste, acuteness, airiness, airy nothing, animal cunning, apparent soundness, appreciation, appreciation of differences, appreciation of excellence, appreciativeness, art, artfulness, artifice, artistic judgment, astuteness, attention to detail, attention to fact, bodilessness, cageyness, callidity, canniness, care for truth, casuistry, choiceness, circularity, circumstantiality, civilized taste, civilizedness, cleverness, complexity, complexness, complication, connoisseurship, conscientiousness, convolution, correctness, crabbedness, craft, craftiness, critical niceness, criticality, criticalness, cultivated taste, cultivation, culture, cunning, cunningness, daintiness, deceptiveness, delicacy, delicate distinction, detail, deviousness, differentia, differential, discriminating taste, discriminatingness, discrimination, discriminativeness, disingenuousness, distinction, distortion, elegance, entanglement, equivocalness, equivocation, ethereality, evasive reasoning, exactingness, exactitude, exactness, excellence, exquisiteness, faithfulness, fallaciousness, fallacy, fastidiousness, faultlessness, feel, feeling, fidelity, fine Italian hand, fine palate, fine point, fineness, finesse, finicality, finicalness, finickiness, finickingness, flawlessness, flimsiness, foxiness, fussiness, gamesmanship, good taste, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, guile, guilefulness, hairline, immateriality, impalpability, imponderability, incorporeality, ingeniousness, insidiousness, insincerity, insolidity, insubstantiality, intangibility, intricacy, intricateness, inventiveness, involution, involvement, jesuitism, jesuitry, judiciousness, literalism, literality, literalness, low cunning, making distinctions, margin, mathematical precision, meticulousness, minuteness, misapplication, mistiness, mystification, narrow margin, nice distinction, niceness, niceness of distinction, nicety, nuance, obfuscation, obscurantism, one-upmanship, oversubtlety, palate, particle of difference, particularity, particularness, pawkiness, perfection, perplexity, perversion, philosophism, plausibility, plausibleness, point of difference, polish, preciseness, precisianism, precision, punctiliousness, punctuality, quality, ramification, rareness, rarity, rationalization, readiness, refined discrimination, refined palate, refinement, resourcefulness, right, rightness, rigidity, rigidness, rigor, rigorousness, satanic cunning, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, selectiveness, sense, sensibility, sensitivity, severity, shade of difference, sharpness, shiftiness, shrewdness, slickness, slightness, slipperiness, slyness, sneakiness, sophism, sophistical reasoning, sophistication, sophistry, special pleading, speciosity, specious reasoning, speciousness, stealth, stealthiness, strictness, subtility, subtilty, subtle distinction, subtleness, suppleness, tact, tactfulness, tanglement, taste, tastefulness, technicality, tenuity, tenuousness, textualism, the letter, thinness, treachery, trickiness, unconcreteness, unreality, unsolidity, unsubstantiality, unsubstantialness, vagueness, vicious circle, vicious reasoning, wariness, wide margin, wiles, wiliness, wit

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