clever

The cunning, determined, rhetorically skillful Odysseus, long absent from his kingdom after a devastating war, becomes the devilishly clever Satan, cast down from his original home after the angelic civil war in heaven.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

In a film full of contrived indignities, this is the most maddening, suggesting that anyone watching the film is no more clever than the “Fossil Fools” audience members.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

Addressing the matter on Wednesday, Hallgrimsson expressed gratitude for the support he has received while admitting "it was not clever" of him to generate headlines in the build-up to the Kosovo match.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

I thought this costume was funny, clever, appropriating and reclaiming the narrative that haunted me all my life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

“And yet we must embrace the unexpected and not lose hope, as Charlotte never fails to remind me. Penny, my dear Penny—you must have found the clue I left for you! How clever you are!”

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

But Isla understands, and we understand, that whatever she doesn’t know yet, she’s cleverer than the doubters give her credit for.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2025

"Is there someone cleverer in Wales?" came the retort.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2024

"Instead it did something even cleverer — it brought together existing genes, which already do other things in different parts of the plant, to make a complicated spot on the petals that deceives male flies."

From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2023

“Who could say what sorts of patterns might give away users who thought they were cleverer than those watching them?”

From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2022

He talked often of how he could not go to university because he had to find a job to support his siblings, and how people he was cleverer than in secondary school now had doctorates.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The cleverest among the group, on paper at least, Fry found the heat being turned up on her as the day rolled on.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

One night, the five decide to bestow their honorific on Ticky, whom they consider “the cleverest of us all because you can tell the exact time without looking at a clock.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Ally and Jay’s rom-com caricature is the cleverest subplot in the movie — the pair are heightened Hallmark Channel ingenues who like fiddly coffee orders, coordinated plaids and the same shade of taupe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2025

They snap up the cleverest and most devious communicators to craft their messages, offering salaries no one else can afford.

From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2024

What makes us most different is that we are far more clever than even the cleverest chimp, and we have words.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall