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clever

Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way.

ˈklɛv.əhistoricalCurrent257 viewsLast reviewed Jun 29, 2026+ Add a definition
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Seen in the wild
10 citations · last seen May 2026

Seen in the wild

Definitions

UK
#1·Apr 27, 2026UK

Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way.

: The Highland men, they're clever men At handling sword and shield,
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UK
#2·Apr 27, 2026UK

Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.

My dad is quite clever with his hands, especially at carpentry.
Origin: From East Anglian dialectal English expert at seizing, from . * perhaps from , clinging; * or perhaps from , , or East/ (compare kluftich, probably derived from ); * or dialectal , itself borrowed from , related to kleven, from , from , related to the Old English word above; * possibly influenced by (compare clawian). Related to cleave. Perhaps influenced by . Compare typologically , (akin to хвата́ть), also note схва́тывать на лету́. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).
For parents

Clever means: Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than risky behaviour. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.

For ESL learners

clever means: Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.. Register: neutral, standard English. A common learner mistake is using the word in a register it does not fit, or assuming a single global meaning; native speakers immediately notice when slang appears in formal contexts, so always check the surrounding register before producing it yourself. A formal-English equivalent (a synonym or descriptive phrase) is usually safer in writing. When in doubt, paraphrase rather than reuse the slang form.

Heard in the wild
  • “🔮 Aquarius's May 05 Celestial Guidance: Novel systems attract attention as everyone debates process. A clever ESP8266 hack or Godot prototype could outpace corporate consensus; keep the rebellion useful and the docs readable. #techbro, #horoscope, #astrology, #Aquarius”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Splitting file editing, testing, and documentation across separate Claude instances while maintaining shared context is clever. Wonder if the orchestration overhead becomes a bottleneck at scale though.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Now I read it, I bet the Guardian thought they were being really clever, calling him a ‘fiddler’ rather than a violinist. I hope he sues them too, and that he wins both cases.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Okay so slight sting but all in all quite tolerable. The nurse was very sweet also. The sting is slowly getting stronger after, but let's see where it caps. Was a clever boy and took a hearty dose of OTC painkillers an hour before 💊”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Elite sophisticated clever cultured and generally better people on BSky shitting on functionally illiterate MAGA voters be like;”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
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UK
#3·Apr 27, 2026UK

Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent.

Heard in the wild
  • “Was Will and Grace a clever play on words with the names? You need will and grace to survive. Hmmm... I bet I'm giving sitcom writers far too much credit.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “This was doing really well until I tried to get clever and ruined it”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Here's a really fun and clever thing about PopoloCrois: much like Dragon Quest, in PopoloCrois dying doesn't take you to the last time you saved but instead you return to the last inn you visited with half of your money gone.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “Richard Dawkins to this day believes people who talk to an imaginary friend are stupid, but when he talks to a Large Language Model he is very clever.”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
  • “'Cause I'm too messy, and then I'm too fucking clean You told me, "Get a job", then you ask where the hell I've been And I'm too perfect 'til I open my big mouth I want to be me, is that not allowed? And I'm too clever and then I'm too fucking dumb”

    — Bluesky· May 2026
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