EN

Synonyms for tricky

27 synonyms
3 antonyms
1 meaning

adjective

Most common

subtle cunning wily tricksy difficult slippery captious

All synonyms

Adjective

1. Wily

wily, subtle, tricksy, cunning, sly, crafty, artful, treacherous, dodgy informal, devious, slick, evasive, insidious, crooked, foxy, scheming, roguish, unprincipled, knavish, guileful, trickish, sneaky

Other

difficult, hard, slippery, catchy, captious

Antonyms

easy, simple, pellucid

All antonyms of tricky →

Definitions

adj. 1
Hard to deal with, complicated.
They were in a tricky situation.

Related words

Word family: trickily trickiness trick

Example sentences

subtle There was a subtle difference between their views.
cunning Tuaregs have a reputation for bravery and cunning.
wily He plays a wily detective with a penchant for disguises.
difficult Explain to him the difficult situation you are in.
slippery The way, sodden with rain, was extremely slippery.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
tricky		rising
subtle		rising
cunning		rising
wily		rising
tricksy		rising
difficult		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: sly¹
4 letters: hard¹, foxy², wily²
5 letters: slick¹, dodgy
6 letters: subtle², sneaky², catchy², crafty², artful²
7 letters: crooked², cunning², devious³, evasive³, roguish, tricksy, knavish
8 letters: slippery³, scheming², guileful, captious, trickish
9 letters: difficult³, insidious⁴
11 letters: treacherous³
12 letters: unprincipled⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (foxy² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: piégeux
Deutsch: irreführend