cunning.
Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
Meaning & usage
Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
Skillful, artful.
Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.
cunning work
Cute, appealing.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English cunning, kunning, konnyng, alteration of earlier Middle English cunninde, kunnende, cunnand, from Old English cunnende, present participle of cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”), equivalent to con + -ing. Cognate with Scots cunnand (“cunning”), German könnend (“able to do”), Icelandic kunnandi (“cunning”). More at con, can.
Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
The natural wit or instincts of an animal.
the cunning of the fox or hare
Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).
Where this word comes from
From Middle English cunning, kunnyng, partially from Old English *cunning (verbal noun), from Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”); partially from Old English cunnung (“knowledge, trial, probation, experience, contact, carnal knowledge”), from cunnian (“to search into, try, test, seek for, explore, investigate, experience, have experience of, to make trial of, know”), equivalent to con + -ing.
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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.