SUBTLETY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subtlety mean? 

• SUBTLETY (noun)
  The noun SUBTLETY has 2 senses:

1. a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude

2. the quality of being difficult to detect or analyze

  Familiarity information: SUBTLETY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBTLETY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

nicety; nuance; refinement; shade; subtlety

Context example:

don't argue about shades of meaning

Hypernyms ("subtlety" is a kind of...):

import; meaning; significance; signification (the message that is intended or expressed or signified)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being difficult to detect or analyze

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

niceness; subtlety

Context example:

you had to admire the subtlety of the distinctions he drew

Hypernyms ("subtlety" is a kind of...):

difficultness; difficulty (the quality of being difficult)

 Context examples 

He found that the newspaper storiette should never be tragic, should never end unhappily, and should never contain beauty of language, subtlety of thought, nor real delicacy of sentiment.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But, as I have recorded in the narrative of my school days, his veneration for the Doctor was unbounded; and there is a subtlety of perception in real attachment, even when it is borne towards man by one of the lower animals, which leaves the highest intellect behind.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mrs Clay's selfishness was not so complicate nor so revolting as his; and Anne would have compounded for the marriage at once, with all its evils, to be clear of Mr Elliot's subtleties in endeavouring to prevent it.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)