Synonyms and Antonyms of cunning
1
skill in achieving one's ends through indirect, subtle, or underhanded means
- the cunning with which Tom Sawyer was able to get others to whitewash the fence for him
artfulness, artifice, caginess (also cageyness), canniness, craft, craftiness, cunningness, deviousness, foxiness, guile, guilefulness, slickness, slyness, sneakiness, subtleness, subtlety, wiliness
calculation, care, design
savvy, sharpness, shrewdness
cleverness, ingeniousness, ingenuity, inventiveness
ease, facility, finesse
deceitfulness, duplicity, shiftiness, underhandedness
2
subtle or imaginative ability in inventing, devising, or executing something
- the unmatched cunning of the scout who led them safely through the trackless wilderness
adeptness, adroitness, art, artfulness, artifice, artistry, cleverness, craft, deftness, masterfulness, skill, skillfulness
dexterity, ease, finesse, handiness
experience, expertise, expertness, know-how, proficiency
creativity, ingenuity, inventiveness, knowledge, learning
aptitude, bent, flair, gift, knack, talent
amateurishness, awkwardness, clumsiness, crudeness, klutziness, rudeness
inability, inadequacy, inadequateness, incapability, incapacity, incompetence, ineffectiveness, ineffectuality, ineffectualness, inefficacy, inefficiency
3
the inclination or practice of misleading others through lies or trickery
- used cunning and subterfuge to lure unwitting victims into the fraudulent scheme
artifice, cheating, cozenage, craft, craftiness, crookedness, crookery, cunningness, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, deceptiveness, dishonesty, dissembling, dissimulation, double-dealing, dupery, duplicity, fakery, foxiness, fraud, guile, guilefulness, wiliness
equivocation, lying, mendacity, prevarication
chicane, chicanery, fraudulence, hanky-panky, jugglery, legerdemain, mountebankery, obliquity, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery, wile
falsehood, falsity, fib, untruth
hypocrisy, insincerity, sanctimoniousness, two-facedness
artfulness, caginess (also cageyness), deviousness, shrewdness
treacherousness, underhandedness, unscrupulousness
covertness, furtiveness, secrecy, shadiness, sneakiness, stealthiness
oiliness, shiftiness, slickness, slipperiness, slyness, smoothness
