Meanings
comparative wilier · comparative more wily · superlative wiliest · superlative most wily
- Sly, cunning, full of tricks.
Horatio's new girlfriend is a wily coquette, and poor Horatio is too smitten to see it.
1 more example
Of all the medical monsters Peter Hotez could have set out to slay, the Yale University researcher could not have chosen a more wily and obscure villain than the hookworm.
1996 October 6, William Hathaway, “PARASITE LINKS MEN IN DARING VENTURE”, in Hartford Courant, archived from the original on 28 Nov 2020Synonyms: astute, artful, cautelous, crafty, cunning, devious, diabolical, foxlike
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSly, cunning, full of tricks.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivemarked by skill in deception
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishwily
- Englishwily
From Middle English wily, wiley, wyly. By surface analysis, wil(e) + -y.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek κίδαφος
- κίδαφος (kídaphos)sly, cunning
Bulgarian хитър, лукав
- хитър (hităr)sly, cunning
- лукав (lukav)sly, cunning
Chinese Mandarin 狡猾
- 狡猾 (jiǎohuá)sly, cunning
Czech prohnaný, mazaný
- prohnanýsly, cunning
- mazanýsly, cunning
- vychytralýsly, cunning
Danish snu
- snusly, cunning
Dutch gewiekst, snood
- gewiekstsly, cunning
- snoodsly, cunning
Finnish ovela, viekas
- ovelasly, cunning
- viekassly, cunning
- juonikassly, cunning
- kierosly, cunning
- luihusly, cunning
- kavalasly, cunning
French rusé, perfide
- rusésly, cunning
- perfidesly, cunning
- fourbesly, cunning
German schlau, listig
- schlausly, cunning
- listigsly, cunning
- gerissensly, cunning
Greek πανούργος, πονηρός
- πανούργος (panoúrgos)sly, cunning
- πονηρός (ponirós)sly, cunning
Hungarian ravasz
- ravaszsly, cunning
Italian furbo, sornione
- furbosly, cunning
- sornionesly, cunning
- subdolosly, cunning
Japanese 狡猾な, 狡い
- 狡猾な (kōkatsu na)sly, cunning
- 狡い (zurui)sly, cunning
Korean 교활한
- 교활한 (gyohwal-han)sly, cunning
Latin vafer, versūtus
- vafersly, cunning
- versūtussly, cunning
- dolōsussly, cunning
Māori hangahangarau
- hangahangarausly, cunning
Polish chytry, przebiegły
- chytrysly, cunning
- przebiegłysly, cunning
- sprytnysly, cunning
Portuguese ladino, matreiro
- ladinosly, cunning
- matreirosly, cunning
- finóriosly, cunning
Russian хи́трый, лука́вый
- хи́трый (xítryj)sly, cunning
- лука́вый (lukávyj)sly, cunning
- проны́рливый (pronýrlivyj)sly, cunning
- изворо́тливый (izvorótlivyj)sly, cunning
Scottish Gaelic seòlta, carach
- seòltasly, cunning
- carachsly, cunning
- seanacachsly, cunning
Slovak prefíkaný
- prefíkanýsly, cunning
Spanish astuto, listo
- astutosly, cunning
- listosly, cunning
- pillosly, cunning
Swedish lömsk, slug
- lömsksly, cunning
- slugsly, cunning
- illistigsly, cunning
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with wily
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Cite this entry
wily. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wily
“wily.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wily. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wily,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wily.
Source: wily on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.