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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

schlau.

clever in a way that enables one to achieve one's goals; slightly sly or cunning (but not usually implying any evil intentions)

6 characters1 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

adj/ʃlaʊ̯/
  1. clever in a way that enables one to achieve one's goals; slightly sly or cunning (but not usually implying any evil intentions)

  2. bright, intelligent, clever (with no such overtone at all)

    informal
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle Low German slû, whence probably also Dutch sluw. Further origin uncertain. Probably from a Proto-Germanic *slūhaz (“sneaking, creeping”), which seems to trace back to a Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewǵ- (“to crawl, slide”) (albeit without any known extra-Germanic cognates), if the original sense referred to sneaking and sliding. Related to Dutch sluiken (“to creep, smuggle, act clandestinely”). In spite of the near-identity in meaning and form, English sly is in all likelihood not related.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.