subtle

1. 1.

   difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze

   “his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change”

   “a subtle difference”

   “that elusive thing the soul”

   Synonymselusive

   Similarimpalpable
2. 2.

   able to make fine distinctions

   “a subtle mind”

   Similarperceptive
3. 3.

   working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way

   “glaucoma is an insidious disease”

   “a subtle poison”

   Synonymsinsidiouspernicious

   Similarharmful

Other forms of subtle

comparative

subtler·

superlative

subtlest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about subtle

What does subtle mean?

subtle means "difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in subtle?

subtle has 2 syllables: sub-tle. The stress falls on "sub". In IPA it is /ˈsʌtəl/.

What is another word for subtle?

Close synonyms include elusive, insidious, pernicious. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is subtle a common word?

subtle is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with subtle?

1 word rhymes with subtle. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.