Standard Lemma guide

subtly

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈsʌt.li/
  • UK: /ˈsʌ.tl̩.li/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈsʌt.l̩.li/
  • General-American: /ˈsʌt.li/
  • CMU ARPABET: S AH1 T AH0 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

in a subtle manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • late nineteenth-century French opera at its most beautiful, subtly romantic with a twilight melancholy

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English sotilly; equivalent to subtle + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: хитро (hitro) — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Bulgarian: ловко (lovko) — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Bulgarian: изкусно (izkusno) — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Catalan: subtilment — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Esperanto: subtile — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Finnish: hienovaraisesti — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • French: subtilement — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Galician: sutilmente — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Italian: velatamente — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Italian: sottilmente — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Italian: subdolamente — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Polish: subtelnie — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Polish: delikatnie — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Portuguese: sutilmente — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Spanish: sutilmente — with subtleness, in a subtle manner
  • Turkish: altan altan — with subtleness, in a subtle manner