Click here to hear one of our visitors pronounce this word. 5 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Subtile \Sub"tile\, adjective [L. subtilis. See {Subtile}.] 1. Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium. 2. Delicately constituted or constructed; nice; fine; delicate; tenuous; finely woven. ''A sotil [subtile] twine's thread.'' --Chaucer. More subtile web Arachne can not spin. --Spenser. I do distinguish plain Each subtile line of her immortal face. --Sir J. Davies. 3. Acute; piercing; searching. The slow disease and subtile pain. --Prior. 5. Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle. [In this sense now commonly written {subtle}.] The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtile, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humor and so little wit in their literature. The genius of the Italians, on the contrary, is acute, profound, and sensual, but not subtile; hence what they think to be humorous, is merely witty. --Coleridge. The subtile influence of an intellect like Emerson's. --Hawthorne. 5. Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile person; a subtile adversary; a subtile scheme. [In this sense now commonly written {subtle}.] Syn: {Subtile}, {Acute}. Usage: In acute the image is that of a needle's point; in subtile that of a thread spun out to fineness. The acute intellect pierces to its aim; the subtile (or subtle) intellect winds its way through obstacles. -- {Sub"tile*ly}, adverb -- {Sub"tile*ness}, noun From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Subtle \Sub"tle\, adjective [Compar. {Subtler}; superl. {Subtlest}.] [OE. sotil, subtil, OF. soutil, later subtil, F. subtil, L. subtilis; probably, originally, woven fine, and fr. sub under + tela a web, fr. texere to weave. See {Text}, and cf. {Subtile}.] 1. Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe. ''A subtle traitor.'' --Shak. 2. Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem. 3. Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive. Things remote from use, obscure and subtle. --Milton. 4. Smooth and deceptive. [Obs.] Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground [bowling ground]. --Shak. Syn: Artful; crafty; cunning; shrewd; sly; wily. Usage: Subtle is the most comprehensive of these epithets and implies the finest intellectual quality. See {Shrewd}, and {Cunning}. From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]: subtle adjective 1: be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind; "his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change"; "a subtle difference"; "that elusive thing the soul" [syn: {elusive}] 2: faint and difficult to analyze; "subtle aromas" 3: able to make fine distinctions; "a subtle mind" 4: working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way; "glaucoma is an insidious disease"; "a subtle poison" [syn: {insidious}, {pernicious}] From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]: 288 Moby Thesaurus words for "subtle": Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, abstruse, accurate, acute, adulterated, air-built, airy, analytic, analytical, appreciative, arcane, arch, artful, astute, attentive, attenuate, attenuated, balled up, boyish, cagey, calculating, canny, casuistic, chimerical, civilized, clever, close, cloud-built, complex, complicated, concealed, confounded, confused, conscientious, constant, convoluted, correct, crabbed, crafty, creamy, critical, cultivated, cultured, cunning, cut, cute, daedal, dainty, deceitful, deceptive, deep, deep-laid, delicate, demanding, designing, detailed, devious, dexterous, diaphanous, differential, dilute, diluted, diplomatic, direct, discriminate, discriminating, discriminative, distinctive, distinguishing, dreamlike, eggshell, elaborate, elegant, elusive, embrangled, entangled, ethereal, even, exact, exacting, exigent, express, exquisite, faint, faithful, fanciful, fastidious, fatuitous, fatuous, feline, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, finical, finicking, finicky, flat, flimsy, fouled up, foxy, frail, fussy, gaseous, gauzy, girlish, gloss, gossamer, gossamery, graceful, gracile, gracious, guileful, hairline, hairsplitting, hidden, illusory, imaginary, implicated, inerrable, inerrant, infallible, ingenious, insidious, insubstantial, intricate, inventive, involuted, involved, iridescent, knotted, knowing, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, lacy, light, loused up, many-faceted, mathematical, matted, mazy, meandering, mellow, messed up, meticulous, micrometrically precise, microscopic, minute, misty, mixed up, mother-of-pearl, mucked up, multifarious, nacreous, narrow, nebulous, nice, obscure, opalescent, pale, papery, particular, pastel, patinaed, pawky, pearly, perplexed, phantomlike, pinpoint, polished, politic, precise, precisianistic, precisionistic, profound, punctilious, punctual, quiet, ramified, rare, rarefied, ratiocinative, ready, recondite, refined, religious, religiously exact, remote, resourceful, rigid, rigorous, roundabout, sad, scheming, scientific, scientifically exact, screwed up, scrupulous, scrutinizing, selective, semigloss, sensitive, serpentine, severe, shadowy, sharp, shifty, shrewd, simple, skillful, slender, slenderish, slick, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slimy, slinky, slippery, sly, small, smarmy, smart, smooth, snaky, snarled, sneaky, sober, soft, soft-colored, soft-hued, softened, somber, sophistical, sophisticated, spirituous, square, stealthy, strategic, strict, subdued, subtile, supple, svelte, sweet, sylphlike, tactful, tactical, tangled, tangly, tender, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, trickish, tricksy, tricky, twisted, uncompact, uncompressed, underhanded, undeviating, unerring, unreal, unsubstantial, vague, vaporous, veiled, vulpine, wary, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, willowy, wily, windy, wiredrawn, wispy From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]: Subtle, KY Zip code(s): 42129

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