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

But instead of sewing clever seeds of doubt, Grant said he'd been so "blatant" about wanting to be a traitor that he simply responded he was one, when he was asked.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 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

But she’d looked strikingly like the Mona Lisa—this was the clever twist in the tale—and so Perugia, deep in desperate mourning, had stolen the painting to bring her back to life.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

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

“You’re ever so much cleverer and brighter than I am, Charlotte. I guess I was just trying to show off. Serves me right.”

From "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White

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

She’s costumed like a clown, but her screenplay is as confident as an antihero’s cleverest heist.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 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

He had been full of arrogance; he had always been the cleverest, the most eager—always a step ahead of the others, always the learned and intellectual one, always the priest or the sage.

From "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse