cunning

Definitions

1. Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
   countable, uncountable
2. A surname.
3. Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
   countable, uncountable
4. The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
   countable, uncountable
5. The natural wit or instincts of an animal.
   countable, uncountable
6. Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).
   countable, obsolete, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form⟳ that's most perplexing to investigate⟳.”

“Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.”

“the cunning of the fox or hare”

CEFR level