sly

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sly^¹

/slaɪ/

Rhymes with -aɪ

Where it comes from

From Middle English sly, sley, sleigh, sleiȝ, from Old Norse slǿgr (“sly, cunning”, literally “capable of hitting or striking”), from Proto-Germanic *slōgiz (“lively, agile, cunning, sly, striking”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, throw”).

Cognate with Icelandic slægur (“crafty, sly”), Norwegian Nynorsk sløg (“sly”). Related to sleight, slay. In all likelihood, however, unrelated with Saterland Frisian slau (“sly, crafty”), Dutch sluw (“sly, cunning”), Low German slu (“sly, cunning”), German schlau (“clever, crafty”). Doublet of sleight and slöjd

adjective slier · slyer · sliest · slyest · sligh

Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice.
Similar: nimble, skillful, cautious, shrewd
Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle a sly trick
Light or delicate; slight; thin.

adverb sligh

Slyly.

Sly^²

proper noun

A diminutive of the male given name Sylvester.
A surname

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: wily, cunning, tricksy, artful, guileful, knavish, crafty, dodgy, tricky, slick, foxy, cagy, dissembling, devious, deceitful, duplicitous

adjective

Translations

Every language

adj artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily

Español	astuto, pillo, listo
한국어	교활하다 gyohwalhada
日本語	狡い zurui, 狡猾な kōkatsu na
中文	狡猾 jiǎohuá, 鬼黠 guǐxiá, 狡黠 jiǎoxiá
Português	esperto, astuto, manhoso
Français	sournois, malin, rusé, matois
Deutsch	schlau, gerissen, listig, verschmitzt
Italiano	furbo, sornione
Română	viclean
Русский	хи́трый xítryj, кова́рный kovárnyj, лука́вый lukávyj
العربية	خَبِيث ḵabīṯ, مَاكِر mākir

adj dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble

Español	habilidoso
Français	espiègle
Italiano	sornione, subdolo
Русский	ло́вкий lóvkij

adj done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy

Italiano	furtivo
Русский	иску́сный iskúsnyj

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MLA

"sly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sly. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sly. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sly

Chicago

"sly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sly.

BibTeX

@misc{sly_2026,
  title = {sly},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sly},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}

sly