Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Crafty |
CraftyAdjective1. Marked by skill in deception; "cunning men often pass for wise"; "deep political machinations"; "a foxy scheme"; "a slick evasive answer"; "sly as a fox"; "tricky Dick"; "a wily old attorney". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "crafty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references) |
Synonyms: CraftySynonyms: cunning (adj), dodgy (adj), foxy (adj), guileful (adj), knavish (adj), slick (adj), sly (adj), tricksy (adj), tricky (adj), wily (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Cunning | Adjective: cunning, crafty, artful; skillful; subtle, feline, vulpine; cunning as a fox, cunning as a serpent; deep, deep laid; profound; designing, contriving; intriguing;Verb: strategic, diplomatic, politic, Machiavelian, timeserving; artificial; tricky, tricksy; wily, sly, slim, insidious, stealthy; underhand; (hidden); subdolous; deceitful; slippery as an eel, evasive; crooked; arch, pawky, shrewd, acute; sharp, sharp as a tack, sharp as a needle; canny, astute, leery, knowing, up to snuff, too clever by half, not to be caught with chaff. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Crafty |
| English words defined with "crafty": Callid, Canniness, Cautelous, Colfox, Colubrine, craftiness ♦ Daedalian, deceitfulness, designing ♦ finagler ♦ guile ♦ Insidious disease ♦ Knacky ♦ Litherly ♦ Machiavelian ♦ polity ♦ Rutterkin ♦ scheming, Slape, Slapeface, Sly goose, Solert, Subdolous, Subtile ♦ Underdealing ♦ Vafrous, Versute ♦ wangler. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "crafty": Rashleigh Osbaldistone. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "crafty": Stellionate. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Witch Crafty (1965) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
John Tillotson | The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | If we may believe certain oracles of crafty politics, from the governmental point of view, something of the emeute is desirable. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Crafty" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.39% of the time. "Crafty" is used about 166 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 96.39% | 160 | 24,760 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.01% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Unclassified Items | 0.6% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 166 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "crafty": crafty fellow ♦ crafty thing ♦ he is a crafty devil ♦ he is a crafty one. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "crafty": arty-crafty. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "crafty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | tinëzar (catlike, foxy, insidious, shifty, sly, sly person, slyboots, sneak, sneaky, stealthy, underground, underhand), finok (astute, cagey, cunning, politic, sharp, smart, wily), dinak (argute, artful, canny, cunning, daedalian, devious, furtive, leery, pawky, sleeky, sly, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كائد (cunning, sly, wily), مخادع (artful, bluff, bluffer, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, devious, dishonest, disingenuous, double, double dealing, double-tongued, face, false, fraudulent, hustler, illusive, illusory, indirect, insincere, misguiding, misleading, sly, trickish, tricky, underhand, wily), ماكر (artful, cunning, deceitful, deep, designing, disingenuous, feline, foxlike, foxy, furtive, guileful, malicious, pawky, politic, scheming, sharper, slick, slim, sly, smart, subtle, trick, vulpine, wily), خادع (bluffy, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, delusory, dishonest, double dealing, fallacious, false, fool, illusive, illusory, insincere, misleading, rip off, trickish, tricky, wily), بارع (able, accomplished, adroit, artful, bright, brilliant, capable, clever, cunning, dexterous, dextrous, educated, fancy, fiend, foxy, handsome, handy, ingenious, intelligent, masterful, masterly, neat, nice, pretty, skilful, skilled, skillful, smart, subtle, superior, sweet, very beautiful, witty, workmanlike, workmanly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | сръчен (able, adroit, agile, cunning, deft, dexterous, dextrous, feat, handy, ingenious, knacky, knowing, light-handed, neat-handed, practised, pretty, skilful, skillful, smart, two-handed), хитър (acute, arch, artful, calculating, catty, clever, cunning, cute, deep, designing, disingenuous, dodgy, foxy, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, long-headed, parlous, patent, pawky, politic, sharp, shifty, shrewd, sleek, slim, sly, smart, supple, wary, wide, wily, wordly-wise), коварен (catty, guileful, insidious, perfidious, snaky, subtle, trappy, underhand), лукав (astute, designing, feline, furtive, guileful, parlous, pawky, serpentine, sly, snaky, subtle, tricky, underhand, wicked, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 鬼 (ghost, sly), 詭 (sly), 詐 (dishonest), , 诡计多端, 獪 (cunning), 狡猾 (cunning, sly), 狡 (cunning, sly), 佹 (almost succeed, suddenly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | rafinovaný (astute, cunning, refined, sneaky, sophisticated, subtle, wily), mazaný (artful, cannie, canny, cunning, nifty, sharp, slick, sly), lstivý (cunning, deceitful, designing, leery, politic, subtle, tricky, underhand, wily), úskoèný (deceitful, shifty, shuffling, snaky, tricky, underhand, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | حیله گر (Captious, Janusfaced, Shifty, Shrewd, Trepanation), بامهارت . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | viekas (clever, cunning, shrewd, sly, smart), juonikas (plotting, scheming). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | rusé, roublard, retors, malin, astucieux. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | listig (artful, clever, cunning, cunningly, foxy, guileful, sly, smart, vulpine, wily), ausgekocht (cunning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μάγκασ (bloke, guttersnipe, hoodlum, hooligan, smart), πανούργοσ (arch, artful, astute, canny, cunning, designing, parlous, pawky, sharp, shrewd, sly, slyish, subtile, subtle, vulpine, wily), επιτήδειοσ (clever, cunning, deft, dexterous, dextrous, great at, handy, shrewd, skilful, skillful, slick, slicker). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | תחבל י (inventive, shifty, tricky, wily), ערמומי (arch, artful, calculating, canny, catchy, cunning, devious, foxy, insidious, pawky, shifty, slicker, sly, underhand, wily), וכל (charlatan, crook, impostor, knave, miscreant, racketeer, rogue, scoundrel, shark, sharper, swindrel, trickster). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | fortélyos (artful, colubrine, crafted, cunning, dodgy, fly, foxy, guileful, pawky, vulpine, wily), ravasz (acute, artful, astute, be cunning, cagey, cagy, calculating, canny, catchy, colubrine, crafted, cunning, cute, deep, drafty, draughty, elusive, foxy, gimmicky, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, pawky, shifty, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, to know how many beans make five, trappy, tricksy, tricky, trigger, vulpine, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sornione (sly), ingannevole (deceitful, deceptive, delusive, dodgy, elusive, false, misleading, tricky), furbo (artful, clever, cunning, foxy, shrewd, sly, smart, smartly, tricky), astuto (arch, artful, astute, cagey, canny, cunning, leery, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 老獪 (cunning), 食えない (cunning, shrewd, smart), 悪賢い (cunning, sly, wily), 小賢しい (clever, cunning, pretentious, shrewd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | くえない (cunning, shrewd, smart), "ざかしい (clever, cunning, pretentious, shrewd), ろうかい (cunning), わるがし"い (cunning, sly, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 간교한. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | kioot (acute, astute, canny, clever, fly, foxy, intelligent, keen-witted, quick-witted, shrewd, smart, wily), kialgagh (calculated, calculating, circumventory, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, fallacious, fly, guileful, illusive, insidious, perfidious, seditious, treacherous, tricky, wily), croutagh (calculating, devious, scheming, subtle). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | aftycray astuto (acute, adroit, arch, artful, astucious, astute, canny, clearheaded, clever, cunning, designing, guileful, jesuitic, jesuitical, leery, longheaded, machiavellian, perspicacious, sharp, shifty, shrewd, sly, smart, sophisticated, subtil, subtile, subtle, tricksy, tricky, vulpine, wily), astucioso (jesuitic, jesuitical, pawky, tricky, wily). (various references) viclean (arch, artful, astute, cagey, catlike, catty, cunning, cute, deceitful, downy, foxy, guileful, leery, pawky, quick-witted, shifty, sly, slyly, subtle, wily), şmecher (acute, arch, artful, astute, canny, catchy, clever, cunning, cute, deep, dodger, downy, leery, sharp, shaver, shifty, slick, slippery, sly, slyboots, wise guy), şiret (arch, artful, canny, cord, cunning, fox-like, gimp, guileful, lace, pawkily, pawky, sharp, shifty, sly, slyboots, slyly, string, subtle, tricky, wily), abil (adroit, apt, artful, artistic, artistical, astute, clean, clever, competent, cunning, deep, deft, dexterous, fit, handy, industrious, knowing, natty, qualified, ready, resourceful, sharp, shifty, skilful, skilfully, skilled, skillful, skillfully, sly, smart, subtle, swift-handed, versatile). (various references) хитрый (artful, astute, cagey, cattish, catty, cunning, disingenuous, insidious, leery, pawky, rat-face, serpentine, sleeky, sly, tricky, vulpine, wily). (various references) seòlta (ingenious, skilful, wily, wise). (various references) lukav (arch, artful, astute, cagey, cagy, canny, captious, cunning, designing, insidious, leery, perfidious, shrewd, sleeky, sly, tricky, vulpine, wily). (various references) astuto (artful, astute, cannie, canny, clever, colic, cunning, deep, devious, dodgy, foxy, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, malicious, mischievous, nasty, pawky, politic, sharp, shifty, sleeky, slick, sly, smart, tricky, vicious, wide, wily, worldly wise). (various references) listig (artful, clever, cunning, deep, dodgy, sharp, shifty, sly, tricky, vulpine, wily). (various references) tilki gibi (cunning, foxy, sly, vulpine), kurnaz (arch, artful, astute, cagey, calculating, canny, cattish, catty, coon, cunning, cute, designing, dodger, dodgy, downy, feline, Fox, foxy, hard boiled, heady, knowing, leery, politic, quirky, roguish, serpentine, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, sly old fox, slyboots, smart, subtile, tricky, vulpine, weasel, wheeler dealer, wide awake, wily, wise guy), düzenbaz (bilker, cross, deceitful, deceiver, designing, falsifier, gadgety, impostor, intriguer, intriguing, left handed, pettifogging, racketeer, rogue, roguish, serpentine, shammer, shyster, tartar, trickster, tricky), şeytan (adversary, arch fiend, artful, cloven foot, cloven hoof, cunning, daemon, demon, devil, fiend, old harry, old nick, prince of darkness, sly, the arch-enemy, the devil, the evil one, the old dragon, the old enemy, the tempter, wily). (various references) mekir (sly). (various references) хитрий (arch, argute, artful, astute, canny, cattish, cunning, devious, doleful, enterprising, foxy, hard-headed, leery, pawky, shifting, shrewd, sly, tricky, wide, wily), вправний (able, accomplished, adroit, artful, canny, capable, clever, cunning, deft, good, handy, jemmy, neat, neat-handed, nifty, practised, proficient), лукавий (ambidextrous, arch, canny, hollow-hearted, wicked, wily), підступний (astute, cattish, cunning, dastardly, guileful, insidious, jesuitic, jesuitical, serpentine, skittish, sly, treacherous, vulpine, wily, witty). (various references) xảo trá (captious, cunning, treacherous, trickish), xảo quyệt (artful, cunning, designing, machiavellian, politic, politically, slim, tricky), lắm mánh khoé, láu cá (cunning, devious, dodgy, foxlike, leery, tricksy, tricky). (various references) ystrywgar (artful, wily), diferiog (wily), dichellgar (artful, cunning, wily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | astutus, callide, callidi, callidior, callidus, dolosa, dolose, dolosi, dolosis, dolositatem, doloso, dolosum, dolosus, malitiosus, vafra. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Job Chapter 15, Verse 5 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | EnocoV ei rhmasin stomatoV sou oude diekrinaV rhmata dunastwn |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Docuit enim iniquitas tua os tuum et imitaris linguam blasphemantium |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | For thy mouth uttereth thy iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Job Chapter 15, Verse 5 |
| Albanian | Sepse prapësia jote t'i sugjeron fjalët dhe ti po zgjedh gjuhën e dinakëve. |
| Cebuano | Kay ang imong kadautan nagatudlo sa imong baba, Ug imong gipili ang dila sa malimbongon. |
| Chinese | 的 罪 孽 指 教 的 口 、 選 " 詭 詐 人 的 舌 。 |
| Croatian | Tvoje rijeèi krivicu tvoju odaju, poslužio si se jezikom lukavih, |
| Danish | Din Skyld oplærer din Mund, du vælger de listiges Sprog. |
| Dutch | Want uw mond leert uw ongerechtigheid, en gij hebt de tong der arglistigen verkoren. |
| Finnish | Sillä sinun pahuutesi panee sanat suuhusi, ja sinä valitset viekasten kielen. |
| French | Ton iniquité dirige ta bouche, Et tu prends le langage des hommes rusés. |
| German | Denn deine Missetat lehrt deinen Mund also, und hast erwählt eine listige Zunge. |
| Haitian Creole | Jan ou pale a, yo wè ou se yon moun ki mechan nan fon kè ou. Ou pale tankou moun k'ap kache yon bagay. |
| Hungarian | Mert gonoszságod oktatja a te szádat, és a csalárdok nyelvét választottad. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Kata-katamu membuktikan bahwa engkau bersalah, tapi kejahatanmu kaututupi dengan bersilat lidah. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Mulutmu sendiri menyalahkan dikau, jikalau fasih lidahmu sekalipun. |
| Italian | Sì, la tua malizia suggerisce alla tua bocca e scegli il linguaggio degli astuti. |
| Maori | Na kei te whakaakona tou mangai e tou kino, a kei te whiriwhiria e koe ko te arero o te hunga tinihanga. |
| Norwegian | for din synd legger ordene i din munn, og du velger falske menns tale. |
| Portuguese | Pois a tua iniqüidade ensina a tua boca, e escolhes a língua dos astutos. |
| Rumanian | Nelegiuirea ta kyi ckrmuiewte gura, wi kmprumuyi vorbirea oamenilor vicleni. |
| Russian | оЕЮЕУФЙЕ ФЧПЕ ОБУФТПЙМП ФБЛ ХУФБ ФЧПЙ, Й ФЩ ЙЪ'ТБМ СЪЩЛ МХЛБЧЩИ. |
| Spanish | Porque tu iniquidad instruye a tu boca, y adoptas el lenguaje de los astutos. |
| Swedish | Ty din ondska lägger dig orden i munnen, och ditt behag står till illfundigt tal. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Misspellings | |
"Crafty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: carty, ceaft, chafty, crafth, craftly, Creeft, Crotty, cruft, Cruyft. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "crafty" (pronounced kra"ftē) |
| 5 | -r a" f t ē | drafty. |
| 3 | -f t ē | biosafety, fifty, hefty, lefty, lofty, nifty, safety, shifty, thrifty. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-f-r-t-y" | |
-1 letter: craft, farcy. | |
-2 letters: arty, cart, fact, fart, frat, fray, racy, raft, tray. | |
-3 letters: act, aft, arc, arf, art, car, cat, cay, cry, far, fat, fay, fry, rat, ray, rya, tar, try, yar. | |
-4 letters: ar, at, ay, fa, ta, ya. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-f-r-t-y" | |
+1 letter: factory. | |
+2 letters: craftily, feracity. | |
+3 letters: olfactory. | |
+4 letters: flycatcher, refractory. | |
+5 letters: calefactory, certifiably, comfortably, craftsmanly, factorylike, farcicality, flycatchers, fractiously, frantically, functionary, manufactory, obfuscatory, parfocality. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Bible Trace 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
